ID please: Fast swimming orange fuzzy worm - pics and video

[Miss Toy]

It's about an inch long, and swims really fast. Doesn't seem to go in any particular direction, just fast and forward. If something is in its way, it just keeps bumping into the obstacle.

Epitoke?

Thanks for any info.

Click the first picture for the movie.

 

[LeslieH]

Yes, that's an epitoke stage of a polychaete in the family Nereididae. Nice photos of a very hard to photograph animal!

 

[Logzor]

I have seen these in my tank. The clowns love to eat them!

They are usually out at night and go into the water column and swim very quickly in a spiral motion.

Are these reef safe? I was under the impression that they were spawning bristleworms.

 

[LeslieH]

Polychaete is Latin for "many bristles" so all polychaetes are bristle worms. reefers often use the term just for the amphinomids which are the most abundant & conspicuous worms in tanks.

An epitoke is the reproductive stage of a polychaete. The body of a normal worm changes as it develops egg and sperm. either the whole body changes - like in the nereid Miss Toy photographed - or just the posterior end which breaks away to spawn. Reef tank amphinomids like Eurythoe don't form epitokes. Their bodies fill up with gametes & under the right conditions they crawl into the open, lift up the front ends of their bodies, & release the gametes. Once released, the eggs & sperm meet, the eggs get fertilized and begin the process of development through larval, juvenile, and adult stages. Epitokes are reef safe because they're non-feeding life stages.

If you look at my polychaete page http://www.nhm.org/guana/bvi-invt/bvi-surv/worm-tit.htm or at Chuck's http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/index.html (click on info links, then hitchhikers, then worms) you'll see a variety of worms that can show up in tanks.

 

[Chorethorious]

Very well detailed explanation. Thank you!