MontanaDolphin
Member
Peeked into my tank again tonight with a flashlight...and saw these "things" shooting through the water like torpedoes!! Then one shot into the sand, and the other shot to the surface and started wriggling up the glass to become halfway out of the water. Grabbed a turkey baster and sucked them out of the sand (as soon as I turned on the hood light the one at the surface shot down into the sand):
Torpedo worms - YouTube
torpedo worms 2 - YouTube
Here's some pics:
They look like midget bristle worms when they stop swimming. So I looked up bristle worm reproduction (with the recent split of my anemone, it's the only thing I could think of...although I have NEVER seen a bristle worm move that fast!!) and wiki had this information:
Some of the polychaetes exhibit remarkable reproductive strategies. Some species in the genus Eunicie reproduce by a process called epitoky. For much of the year, these worms look like any other burrow-dwelling polychaete, but as the breeding season approaches the worm undergoes a remarkable transformation as new, specialized segments begin to grow from its rear end until the worm can be clearly divided into two halves. The front half, the atoke, is asexual. The new rear half is responsible for breeding and is known as the epitoke.
Each of the epitoke segments is packed with eggs and sperm and features a single eyespot on its surface. The beginning of the last lunar quarter is the cue for these animals to breed and the epitokes break free from the atokes and float to the surface. The eye spots sense when the epitoke reaches the surface and the segments from millions of worms burst, releasing their eggs and sperm into the water.
It's the only conclusion I can come to. Anyone have any input?
Torpedo worms - YouTube
torpedo worms 2 - YouTube
Here's some pics:
They look like midget bristle worms when they stop swimming. So I looked up bristle worm reproduction (with the recent split of my anemone, it's the only thing I could think of...although I have NEVER seen a bristle worm move that fast!!) and wiki had this information:
Some of the polychaetes exhibit remarkable reproductive strategies. Some species in the genus Eunicie reproduce by a process called epitoky. For much of the year, these worms look like any other burrow-dwelling polychaete, but as the breeding season approaches the worm undergoes a remarkable transformation as new, specialized segments begin to grow from its rear end until the worm can be clearly divided into two halves. The front half, the atoke, is asexual. The new rear half is responsible for breeding and is known as the epitoke.
Each of the epitoke segments is packed with eggs and sperm and features a single eyespot on its surface. The beginning of the last lunar quarter is the cue for these animals to breed and the epitokes break free from the atokes and float to the surface. The eye spots sense when the epitoke reaches the surface and the segments from millions of worms burst, releasing their eggs and sperm into the water.
It's the only conclusion I can come to. Anyone have any input?
I found a thread where boomer made this id & remembered it
