Red tiny worm - good or bad?

[cvu]

Tiny, red and moving. Good cuc or bad guys?

 

[AlyciaMarie Verified Admin]

Weird...Got another picture by chance?

Any ideas @ISpeakForTheSeas ?

 

[cvu]

Weird...Got another picture by chance?

Any ideas @ISpeakForTheSeas ?

Couldn't find it at the moment. Will take a few pictures or video when seeing it again.

 

[Subsea]

I don’t call that tiny: perhaps skinny & long.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Weird...Got another picture by chance?

Any ideas @ISpeakForTheSeas ?

That's a female Bonelliid Spoon Worm:

That's a female Bonelliid Spoon Worm/Echiuran - most spoon worms are harmless detritivores (good CUC), but a few (likely including yours) have a toxin (Bonellin) on their proboscis (the forked "mouth" mentioned above) and/or skin; these eat things like small pods that succumb to the toxin when crawling on/over the proboscis.

These would probably be fine to keep in the tank as long as you think your critters are smart enough not to touch the proboscis, but it may carry some risk (especially for smaller critters, and especially if your female has one or more males - which are tiny - living with it so that it could reproduce):

be aware that it is toxic (the toxin is called Bonellin, and I’m not sure about it’s effects on people), and please handle it with care and a good pair of gloves.

If you decide to keep it, I'd probably suggest running carbon and doing regular water changes to be safe.

Bonelliid spoon worms exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism - the females are large while the males are extremely tiny and often/always live literally inside the female. So, by seeing the worm's regular-sized proboscis extended, you can tell it's female (no idea if it has a male with it or not though).

Unfortunately no idea how harmful the toxin is - as a general rule, the physically greener the worm, the more toxic I would expect it to be, but I don't know how much of the toxin it would take to harm a small fish.

 

[cvu]

That's a female Bonelliid Spoon Worm:

Yeah, I think it's the one. Except mine is red and the one in the older post is more greenish. I will try to capture a video next time when it appears again. Thanks for the very detailed information.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, I think it's the one. Except mine is red and the one in the older post is more greenish. I will try to capture a video next time when it appears again. Thanks for the very detailed information.

Yeah, not all of these species are green in color (though the Green Spoon Worm, Bonellia viridis, is definitely the best known) - the bifid (forked) proboscis gets us to the family, but I don't know the family well enough to ID beyond that point yet.

 

[KrisReef]

The title of this thread, and my twisted mind’s comprehension of it brings me only shame and humiliation. Lord help me.