Another Worm ID thread

[PostShawn]

What kind of worm is this? Is it a bristle worm? I have about a 5 inch sand bed and this was found on the underside of a porous rock sitting on the sand bed. It was only about an inch long. I pulled the rock out which was a flat rock about 5 inches across and it was just crawling around the bottom of that rock. There was a decent size little brittle star under the rock right near it too. I used my pliers and the worm came right off no problem. I haven't seen these guys in my tank at all (running for over a year).

Will this worm eat fish or corals or invertebrates? Whenever I've added shrimp they disappear. They shrimp tend to hide near where this worm was found. It seems too small to eat a shrimp alive but will one of these, or a bigger one or multiple of these eat a live shrimp?





Thanks!

 

[zesty]

This may help you, bristle worms (that aren't huge) are usually good for your tank. However, if I saw a 5" bristle worm, I'd be tempted to remove it, just as you have done.

Worm Hitch Hikers

 

[PostShawn]

Well this one was only 1 inch long. It was under a 5 inch rock. But I haven't seen them before in my system and it's been setup well over a year. So I removed this one as a precaution since I wasn't sure exactly what it was. I'm sure I have more because you never have just one of a hitchhiker. I have plenty of filter feeding critters so I'm not worried about removing this one little guy for now. I just worry because I'm constantly moving rocks and corals and don't want to touch anything I shouldn't.

 

[zesty]

Yeah, i'm in the group of "if you see one, there's more".
I've seen bristles in my cheato ball and just left them. Little ones don't worry me so much.

Wait a few hours after lights out and look around and see if you can see more.

 

[PostShawn]

I look quite often when the lights go out. I even use the red filter on a flash light method. I've never seen them though. I see the little copepods running around, the brittle stars reaching out of the rock and maybe some other stuff. But never saw one of these worms day or night. I did just get some new corals a few weeks ago. Maybe I didn't have them and one hitchhiked it's way in recently.