Baby Medusa worm?

[4theluvofcoral]

Hello Everyone,

I just put some blue hypnea in my tank and see I have a hitchhiker that I am not too positive what it is. could this be a worm possibly a baby Medusa worm or something else? Your guess is as good as mine so I appreciate any responses. I have nothing but live sand, some asterina starfish that hitchhiked as well on a very tiny piece of live rock. This blue hypnea I literally just added and went to look at it and saw this. I intend on adding 8lbs of submerged live rock, and some soft corals later down the road but just curious if this is a pest or something that can stay.

 

[JoJosReef]

Hard to see. Can you get a photo under more white lights?

 

[4theluvofcoral]

Hard to see. Can you get a photo under more white lights?

This is white light, it's in the corner of the tank I have been trying to upload a 15 sec clip for the past 12 minutes or so this interface is not good at uploading. It's a biocube so I really cannot adjust it anymore than it is and it's completely clear with some white specks on top of that. There are only three light settings full light/white, sunset/sunrise, and blue/night.

 

[4theluvofcoral]

Here is the clip for whatever reason it would not attach to the original post even though it shows upload was complete.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

This is white light, it's in the corner of the tank I have been trying to upload a 15 sec clip for the past 12 minutes or so this interface is not good at uploading. It's a biocube so I really cannot adjust it anymore than it is and it's completely clear with some white specks on top of that. There are only three light settings full light/white, sunset/sunrise, and blue/night.

Shine a flashlight on it and then take the pic.
For videos, upload to YouTube and post the link.

 

[4theluvofcoral]

Shine a flashlight on it and then take the pic.
For videos, upload to YouTube and post the link.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

How many tentacles on the head?

 

[4theluvofcoral]

Forget it nothing is working and this is way too complicated...Youtube still trying to upload a 6 sec clip...shaved down from 15 that was originally 26 seconds long.

 

[4theluvofcoral]

How many tentacles on the head?

Looks like at least 6 evenly spaced.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Looks like at least 6 evenly spaced.

@ISpeakForTheSeas ?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, some sort of apodid sea cucumber (sometimes called medusa worms) would be my first guess, though I'm not familiar with a species that would look quite right for this specimen.

There are a number of transparent/translucent cukes, though, so that's not entirely surprising.

 

[4theluvofcoral]

Yeah, some sort of apodid sea cucumber (sometimes called medusa worms) would be my first guess, though I'm not familiar with a species that would look quite right for this specimen.

There are a number of transparent/translucent cukes, though, so that's not entirely surprising.

So more than likely I should take it out if I see it again. Don’t they release toxin that kill fish?

 

[4theluvofcoral]

Thank you all for giving this a look and attempting to help identify this creature. I was having such difficulty just uploading. By the time I finally gave up or the Youtube finished it was gone.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

So more than likely I should take it out if I see it again. Don’t they release toxin that kill fish?

Some will release toxins when severely stressed, others will literally allow themselves to be eaten without releasing toxin; sometimes they do release toxins and nothing shows any signs of being bothered.

I've only see like two instances of a sea cucumber actually releasing enough toxins to cause issues, so it's incredibly rare.

My advice for keeping cukes is to keep mixed saltwater on hand for an emergency water change, keep carbon on hand to run as needed, and just keep an eye on the cukes to see how they're doing - remove them if they look like they're going to die.


With regards to if you should keep it or not, that's up to your risk-tolerance; personally, as long as there's nothing in the tank with it that should bother it, I'd keep it, but others wouldn't. If you don't want it, I'd say to give it away to someone (a local reefer, your LFS, etc.).

 

[Sophie"s mom]

This is white light, it's in the corner of the tank I have been trying to upload a 15 sec clip for the past 12 minutes or so this interface is not good at uploading. It's a biocube so I really cannot adjust it anymore than it is and it's completely clear with some white specks on top of that. There are only three light settings full light/white, sunset/sunrise, and blue/night.

Get an orange filter to go over the camera lens on your phone. They block out the blue light. Very cheap, I bought mine on amazon.