Does your fungia do *this*?

[eshook]

Every night my fungia has been extending its sweeper tentacles. It seems every night they get a little longer. I would say its 14"+ at this point. Well within the reach of many corals in my 24 nano-cube.

Here is a picture of the sweepers at night
http://www.cigi.uiuc.edu/eshook/tank/img/pictures/sweeper.jpg

Here is a picture of the plate coral during the day (for those of you who don't know its the green circle in the sandbed :O)
http://www.cigi.uiuc.edu/eshook/tank/img/pictures/plate.jpg

Does your fungia sp. do this too? Should I be concerned about warfare?

[TheFallofSidney]

I don't have an ID for you, but the sweepers are eerily beautiful.

[kramgnik]

Are you sure those are comming out of the fungia or surrounding rockwork or if you see any other animal growing on the coral that may form a calcified tube?

[fraggin]

thats a type of flatworm, had them on my leather years ago.
check with a flashlight,you will see them zip that line in real fast.
they blended in so well with my leather that they looked like a scar, pulled them apart with tweezers because they gripped on tight.

[eshook]

I'll look at the bottom of the fungia tonight and make sure, but when I purchased it (2 weeks ago) it was just its calcified plate on the bottom (that I noticed at least).

fraggin,
A flatworm? Really? The sweepers (entities?) do not retract with light (the backlight in the picture is a lamp) and I also used the flash on my camera with no effect.

[fnvarner]

either way nice tank

[DetectiveTofu]

Hm, I am not entirely sure those are sweeper tentacles... not 100% though

[eshook]

They don't seem like sweeper tentacles to me either, but I don't know what else they could be. They are originating from the coral area (and not the sandbed). But there could be an organism on the calcified skeleton.

I'll look when I get home!

[Freed]

Not sweepers. They are from another invert/organism in the tank. Have seen them before and there are other threads about them on RC.

[eshook]

You guys are right. There is something that is growing on the bottom side of the disc.

http://www.cigi.uiuc.edu/eshook/tank/img/pictures/underplate.jpg

If you look closely on the left side by the top you can see part of the long string-like object that I pictured above.

Does anyone know what this is?

It feels squishy to the touch and is covering almost 50% of the bottom of the plate.

[fraggin]

flip that fungia over, look for some snot looking crap under it if the threads are coming out around it. i never thought about a FW dip tho when i had them, wonder if that would get them to peel off easily.

[fraggin]

hah dam, i leave the room in a the middle of a post

[fraggin]

dip that bast in fw for a feew secs
looked back, that is one big a$$ flatworm, mine where only 1 inch but several.

[eshook]

If thats a flatworm that has to be a world record or something! The coral is 4-5" across so thats a HUGE flatworm!

Will a fw dip hurt the plate? I obviously don't want to kill/hurt the plate coral.

[fraggin]

i think about 5 secs it will be running,otherwise tweezers and pulling it off in pieces.

get a dish of FW and a plate of tank water, dip in FW and when it comes off, put the plate back in your tank water.

[eshook]

A 5 second dip? That might work.

I'll have to do it tomorrow. Lights are almost out and I have a few things that I need to finish. Plus I can take some pictures of the cool thread-like things tonight :) They are neat to see sway in the water column.

Then tomorrow with any luck the long stringed booger will be dead.

[fraggin]

heh, GL
i think it is amazing how long of a "fishing line" these things can stretch out compared to their body size.

[PiXieCath]

It's not a flatworm, it's a Coeloplana, a kind of jellyfish. Not harmfull...

[eshook]

Nice catch pixiecath.

I googled the name and this page popped up

http://www.imagequest3d.com/catalogue/ctenophores/pages/h097_jpg.htm

This page calls it a 'purse jelly'.

Thats exactly what my tentacle things look like (although they have a much cooler picture)

You say not harmful, but will it:
a) spread
b) harm corals / inverts / fish
?

I'll have to do some digging. Thanks for the name!

It was close fraggin, but I think pixie has hit it on the nose.

[fraggin]

cool pixie, always wondered WTH they where. look like a flatworm to me.

this doesn't look harmless when it smothers your corals every night
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/reefs/guamimg/misctaxa/Images/3.jpg

[PiXieCath]

I had those thing on one of my sarco...never harm anyone in my tank...it finally disapear...

[fraggin]

pix, cool avatar, wish i could have a lionfish again, but i dont think my small fish would like it.
had a black volitan years ago,he was cool.

[PiXieCath]

thanks fraggin! That's my favorite fish! I had one for a while(a devil lionfish...Pterois mombase) and he died next summer when I was on vacation...the tank raised to 92°F! Since, I've closed my agressive tank but one day, I will probably buy another one...Lovely fish, with a lot of personnality!

[fraggin]

i used to hand feed my lion, good personality, and kept those dam damsels under control. wish i had pix of it.makes me want to start up a fish tank again,hmm gettin the bros 55g.

[NewWorldWater]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12132552#post12132552 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PiXieCath
It's not a flatworm, it's a Coeloplana, a kind of jellyfish. Not harmfull...

Whats the difference between a Coeloplana and a Ctenaphore (what I thought it was...)? If you know...