Nocturnal Worm/Eel/Parasite???

[scdc46]

My wife found this while the lights were off (actually, the moon lights were on).

When I turned on the Actinic lights, it was swimming around and trying to hide... The pictures are not that great, but they were the best that I can do with the camera that I have. He's about 3/4 to 1 inch long and very skinny. Appears to have a spot on one end of the body... looks like a mouth to suck algea or attach onto something.

It wiggles around enough that it's getting the attention of all of my fish. My Yellow Tang, Percula Clown and Aruba Damsel seemed to be licking their lips while following it.

Any help will be appreciated.

 

[TCTFish]

There are several different species of worm this thing could be. For a positive ID, we would need a more detailed photo showing color, any patterns, segments and other shapes and parts.

What kind of camera do you have? Maybe we can help you achieve a better photo

 

[scdc46]

Actually, all I have is a digital camcorder which has photo capabilities. I've only seen this "thing" once, so I don't know if I can find it again for another picture.

It was white with a small mouth-like dot on one end.

 

[TCTFish]

You won't get much of a picture with a camcorder. The camcorder MP quality is very different in still photos than the MP quality of a digital camera. A camcorder will decrease MPs to about 1 or 2 MP when used for still photos.

I came across a worm that had some weird behavior. It would roll itself inside inside it's body. Then roll itself out, extend, open mouth and roll back in. It too was white or actually off white.

The book I've been looking through is called Coral Reef Animals of the Indo - Pacific by Terrence M. Gosliner, David W. Behrens and Gary C. Williams.

Here are some names you can check out...

Aplacophora - solenogasters.
Themiste lageniformis
Phascolosoma nigerescens
There are also ribbon worms, nemertea
Segmented worms, polychaeta - polychaetes