What is this?

[Franio]

We got a feather duster worm and there was a second tube attached to it. The feather duster committed suicide the first night and as we were about to throw out the tubes, this thing turned out to be in the other one. The tube was sort of torn on one side and sort of tied off on the other so something may have laid an egg in the tube.

The worm(?) doesn't move much. Its main activity seems to be slowly elongating and quickly bunching up when touched by tank mates. The green skin looks amazing as the color turns light and dark green smoothly when the muscles underneath move. It's about 3 inches long.

Is this a tube worm or possibly a larva of something?

 

[DaFrog]

I saw that you used a 30D - What lens did you use? Did you post process the images?

Thxs

 

[mr_X]

that thing is crazy looking! what did the dead featherduster look like?

and yes, i agree with the nice pics. :wink:

 

[Franio]

I saw that you used a 30D - What lens did you use? Did you post process the images?

Thxs

EF 50mm 1.8 lens on the first one
EF-S 17-85 IS on the others

Taken in raw and processed in Adobe Lightroom. Only cropping and .33 bump in exposure though.

 

[Anonymous]

That looks like the body of the duster. Try burying it in the substrate and see if it forms itself another tube. It appears to be segmented, so I would guess at the very least an Annelid worm.

 

[Anonymous]

it is possible this is what killed the feather duster?

 

[Charlesr1958]

That is the featherduster worm, which has also lost its "crown" . It should be gently buried in the sand and give it a month or two for it to form another tube and grow another crown.

Chuck