Not convinced this is a bristle worm...

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Hello everyone!

This little guys has been in my tank for few months but only tonight was I able to catch him- My reasons for thinking this isn't a bristle worm are as follows- It appears to be pretty much the same size as when it arrived a few months ago (about 1 centimeter), It has not multiplied, It does not become "fluffy" although it has bristles they appear to be fixed in length. Lastly I took a macro photo at about a 1:2 ratio and it appears to have small eyes and mandibles... It also moves in more of a centipede like fashion than the bristle worms I've worked with. Sorry about the photo of a photo, I can't figure out how to upload pics from my good camera without them becoming blurry. Thanks in advance!

 

[El_Guapo13]

@KJ

 

[PR_nano]

Looks like a Syllidae worm

 

[vetteguy53081]

Some form of Cirratulid worm. Similar to spaghetti but body is different.

 

[35ppt]

Redacted

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Thanks for the responses everyone! I'm not going to lie it slipped my mind just how massive and diverse the bristle worm group is!

Some form of Cirratulid worm. Similar to spaghetti but body is different.

This crossed my mind but it just seemed to have more pronounced segmentation than any photos I could find of this group.

Looks like a Syllidae worm

It is a bristleworm but it's not the common bristleworm everyone calls "bristleworms". There are over 5,000 species of bristleworms that come in many shapes and sizes. What you have there is as said above a member of the Syllidae family of bristleworms. As shown here about half way down: http://chucksaddiction.thefishestate.net/hitchworms.html



/And according to my backup of the Hitchhiker's Guide the have been known to feed on coral as well.

I think you guys nailed it! Thanks for the link as well! surprised that didn't come up in my searches but looks like a fantastic resource- I'll be sure to refer to that in the future! I believe this is a sponge eating variety since the only time I've seen this guy on a coral was on the skeleton of the pipe organ he arrived on- since then all my encounters with him haven't been near any of the corals, also the sponges on the pipe organs skeleton disappeared overtime- perhaps this fella exhausted the sponges there and has now moved on to the pineapple sponges- it seems to always be closer to those then the corals. So far it hasn't been that hard to find so I think I'll let it be for now and keep my on it- cool critter nonetheless!

 

[35ppt]

Redacted