long white, trunk-like transparent worm, night loving

[Mihai]

I got some (at least 4) white worms that come out at night but hide away when I light them up with the flashlight. They are attached to the substrate (live rock, Kaelini) and they don't move the attachement. They are some 3-4" long (toothpick thin) when fully extended, they have a mouth on top of the extension and they use it to swallow small things (like sand blown on their side of the rock). They are white-transparent, you could see the sand going down their throat (very cool) as the swallow.

Any idea what's that?
Mihai

 

[Mihai]

Did I really discover a new worm?
M.

 

[Anonymous]

My first guess was a sipunculan (peanut worm), but that's probably not right.

 

[John_Brandt]

We really need better photos showing details to figure out what these worms might be. Is there anything distinctive about the mouth parts or the shape of these?

Marine worms are one of the most diverse and numerous families of animals on the planet. We can only identify the more commonly encountered ones from a photo.

Can you get one of these onto a dark surface and then take a good focused photo?

 

[Mihai]

I'll try to get better pictures, the problem is that the guys only come up at night when my auto-focus is at its worst (and the manual focus sucks at my Canon G3).

Regards,
Mihai

 

[free_loader]

ok .. i;ve been holding off on replying to this for a while .. but i can;t hold back anymore ... the subject just sounds like a really strance personal add "long white, trunk-like transparent worm, night loving seeks same for friendship or possibly more"

 

[Mihai]

Actually according to my observations it's more like "seeks voluptuous detritus with no family obligations"

M.