Dune?

[ecardwell]

Hi, new to the hobby. I just bought a piece of live rock with some things on it. The head look kind of like the worm from Dune, and is heavily incrusted will coralline algae. At first I thought they were fossils but they open and close there mouths often. Also they appear to have tentacles inside the mouth. Any Ideas? :?:

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Pics would help. It's really difficult to make a positive Id with such a vague description. Sorry.

 

[ecardwell]

Here is a photo of the thing.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

ummm...that really wasn't much help. We need a closer image of the critter. Can you zoom in on it and crop the pic for us please?

 

[iphy]

Hrm. From your description (picture is too dark and small), it might be a barnacle. I looked on the web for some good pictures of ones with their tentacles out, but didn't find much. There's a good drawing here:
http://www.greatbay.org/kids_corner/quest/exploration/who_lives_here_rs.html

And there's a photograph here that is not too bad:
http://www.marinelife-explorer.com/specieswebpages/barnacle.html

And, as with everything in the ocean, they come in all kinds of sizes, shapes and colors:
http://virtual.yosemite.cc.ca.us/randerson/Marine Invertebrates/barnacle.htm
http://www.oceanicresearch.org/jpegs/barnacle.jpg
http://www.underwatervision.com/gallery/barnacle.html
http://www.fathomthis.ca/stills/polaroid_pages/giant_barnacle.htm

So, what you think?