jke1980
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Can someone help me identity this worm looking thing? I know what bristle worms look like and this doesn't appear to be one. I noticed it today and it was about 1/4" sticking out. About an hour later and it's out around 1 1/2".
Can someone please help ID this worm looking thing?
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Jay Hemdal
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Based on the body segments, it could be an annelid (segmented worm). Same major group as bristle worms. The only other animal that has segments like this are synapta sea cucumbers. They differ because at one end, they have feeding arms that can be extended.
cdemoss01
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That thing is weird! I think it's a ribbon worm. Maybe @BristleWormHater could help.
Is there a apple/ ipad thing with these vids? Seems I can never view them
BristleWormHater
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My best guess is a bristleworm, any chance you could get a better pic, maybe pull it out of the tank?
@ISpeakForTheSeas
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Yeah, that is either a "bristleworm" (Polychaete) of some variety, or an Apodid sea cucumber of some kind (a Synaptid cuke would be the most likely of the three Apodid families from the species I'm aware of in them). Regardless, it's definitely not your standard bristleworm, and I would need more info/closer, clear pics to give a solid ID.
That said, if it's a cuke, it would extend some feeding tentacles from its mouth and curl/withdraw them back into its mouth to feed; the feeding/oral tentacles on most (but not all) cukes are pretty distinctive, so it should be easy to tell if it's one of those. If it's a bristleworm, it may have tentacles on its head, but it wouldn't extend any out of its head/mouth to feed.
A cuke would be mostly harmless (though you would want to be aware of the risks of holothurin, which is the toxin sea cukes produce and may release if stressed/attacked/if they die). Generally with bristleworms, though, if a worm holes up in a specific burrow and doesn't leave it but just pokes out from it to feed, that's generally a red flag that it may be predatory and you would want to look into it more closely.
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