non-fish at Rangiroa
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Wed 4 Jul 2012 05:35
 This is a worm, living in a tube in the coral - the
bit you can see is about 10mm tall. The 'feathers' are arranged in two spirals
and are used to catch bits of plankton drifting past. If frightenened the whole
apparatus is withdrawn into the tube astonishingly rapidly. The coral
surrounding it is effectively rock. What you can see as a load of hummocks is
the limestone rock secreted by the coral. It is hard, just like rock; you can
stand on it. The animals live in the little pits, and are like tiny sea
anemones. They come out at night to feed, again filtering the
water.
Below is a dirrefent species of tube worm,
colloquially called the Christmas Tree worm - it even has snow on its
branches!
 And here is a beautiful 'giant' clam. This one is
about 300mm lengthways. The blue bit is flesh and the black spots are primitive
eyes. They work just well enough to detect movement and cause the clam to
retract and close the two wavy shell valves. The round black hole in the centre
is how the animal sucks water in an out - again a filter feeer.
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