What in the world is this creature??

[Jonathan lee]

Anyone can ID this for me? Today one of my hammers died. Last night it wasnt happy and looked extremely stressed. Sucked to see it that way cause it was fine just hours before in the morning. So i dipped it in iodine and put it back thinking its a bacterial infection. At midnight i came down and saw some strings(i thought they were vermetid snails at first cause i do have a few in the tank) touching the hammer. In the morning the hammer was dead. So i decided to do a water change and when i lifted a rock, this guy popped out and started squirming so i sucked it up and put it in a cup. I then found 6-8 more under the rock. They made a ‘tube’ out of my sand and live in the sand tube. The tube of sand was connected to the bottom of the rock. Do you think this guy killed my hammer? Only one hammer was affected so i dont think its my parameters. I think something must have stressed it and killed it.

 

[fishguy242]

wow,kinda looks like that rare octopus ,that does have more than 8 legs ,@KJ :oops: 30 yrs never seen this!!!

 

[Jonathan lee]

wow,kinda looks like that rare octopus ,that does have more than 8 legs ,@KJ :oops: 30 yrs never seen this!!!

I asked in a fb group. Its a spaghetti worm. So yea this probably killed my hammer... dang it 100 dollar frag dead in a day

 

[fishguy242]

does it legs resemble octopus??

 

[fishguy242]

i just quick googled ,wow,but all seem to agree are reef safe ,do not eat or damage coralso_O

 

[Jonathan lee]

i just quick googled ,wow,but all seem to agree are reef safe ,do not eat or damage coralso_O

I saw a video saying these guys killed alot of zoas and palys in their tank. Im guessing they irritated my hammer so much that it just died. Cause last night i saw maybe 3-4 tentacles on the hammer around midnight when the lights came off. I honestly dont know what killed my hammer. It did have a crack which is super glued shut yesterday when i iodine dipped it. I dont know if it was indeed a bacterial infection from fragging or what

 

[Jonathan lee]

i just quick googled ,wow,but all seem to agree are reef safe ,do not eat or damage coralso_O

Youre right tho, basically almost all say they are harmless...hmm

 

[fishguy242]

that may be the case ,cleaning up debris ,a crack in the head is normally bad news,glad it did not affect other corals

 

[fishguy242]

i apologize @KJ ,always thankful for your help :cool:i just watched thales octopus video couple days ago showing this rare multi tentacle octopus :rolleyes:

 

[KJ]

Terebellidae sp.

 

[Paul B]

That spaghetti worm didn't kill your coral. They are extremely common and almost all tanks have them.
I have probably thousands of them and I like them. They are fine, great detrivores and will pick food out of the water column if it sticks to them.
Fantastic little free creatures.

 

[ScubaFish802]

i just quick googled ,wow,but all seem to agree are reef safe ,do not eat or damage coralso_O

That was my understanding too.. I thought these were known good guys

 

[fishguy242]

That was my understanding too.. I thought these were known good guys

yes they are ;)

 

[Albertan22]

The spaghetti worm was likely on your hammer because it died. It’s a detrivore and would be attracted to the dead tissue. It’s cleaning it up for you.