Another mystery worm ID request

[denverhoss]

Yet another ID question, with yet another worm.

While removing my old DSB (I’ve changed to a Remote DSB) I found another worm that I’ve never seen before, and some small white clams. The worm is about a foot long and builds a soft tunnel under the sand like a feather duster but translucent. It is about 1/4” diameter with a cream colored body and tuffs of brown spaced along both sides that look like clusters of hairs. I’m sure it’s bad for my tank, because EVERYTHING I’ve ever found as a hitchhiker has turned out to be classified as an evil serial killer.
I also found some small white clams. The largest was about ¼ inch and they move about using a white tubular foot that seems to big to fit in the shell but does. I’m sure these cute little guys are killers too.
Any assistance appreciated!

Hoss

 

[roguemonk]

I'd say the worms are harmless bristleworms. If they had tightly-spaced red bristles they would be fireworms which can be harmful to other life. Bristleworms are excellent cleaners and are your ally in processing waste.

I don't know of any particularly harmful clams. They probably provide some nice planktonic larvae that will be good for everyone in your tank, and if they are thriving they must be getting what they need. Might be worth some research on WetWebMedia.com to be sure, in case I'm just not aware of some plague of killer clams .

Thanks,

Brad

 

["Umm fish?"]

What Brad said. I'd put the worm into your RDSB.

 

[denverhoss]

Thanks guys, but I've got lots of Bristle worms, with white bristles that break off easily when you grab the worm with your bare hand (not recommended). But this guy has tuffs of soft brown things that remind me more of some kind of gills than bristles. There's one row down each side, with fuffs spaced about 1/8 inch apart - similar to bristle worms except I think my bristle worms actually have two rows on each side, one higher thant the other. They seem to branch out from the base like tiny tree branches (4 or 5 branches per tuff), rather than each one sticking out of the worm itself like bristle worms. They seem to float to an upright position when he's out of his tube, so it looks like he's walking down a tree lined avenue. I also don't remember my Bristle worms building tubes, they just hide under the rocks until the lights go off or the food looks too tempting.
I didn't see anything on Wetweb that looked like this either.

 

[roguemonk]

I see some tunnels in my DSB that I think were made by bristleworms burrowing a bit. I think they do burrow. This may just be a different variety that does so and uses slime or something to solidify the burrow.

But I'll have to take a closer look. Some of my bristleworms look like they have tighter, more spaced-out tufts, but I've never looked closely.

Generically, I would say that if they got a foot long and didn't kill anything bigger than an amphipod, they're probably harmless! (Did you have a lot of mysterious disappearances?) I'll check out one of my bristleworms that seem darker and see what they look like up close.

Brad

 

[Thurge]

It wouldn't happen to have 5 tenticles coming out of the head would it?
If so I would kill it now.

Personally any worm that grows into the foot range or better is tossed from my tank.