Id??

[Maverick27]

My feather duster has been taking a turn for the worse. After a while i noticed his tube getting shorter and shorter. The other day i noticed this orange guy, which looked like he was pulling on the back end of it. Maybe someone can ID this thing for me and help me out? Will it eventually kill my featherduster? Is a nuisance animal?

Bristleworm maybe??

 

[capncapo]

Looks like a common bristleworm.

Bristleworms will not harm a healthy animal. They will however eat something that is dead or in the process of dying.

 

[dustin Combs]

I agree with capncapo it is a bristleworm.

 

[Sk8r]

They're detritus eaters. I'd say there's something bad going on at that end of the tube that's attracted the worm, maybe a bacterial infection, maybe a parasite---I recall somewhere on a science program that some of the tubeworm colonies at the deepsea vents could be over a hundred years old, so I'd suspect the tubeworm ought not to be dying of old age or anything of the sort, but something's happening---UNLESS that red worm is what they're now calling a 'fireworm' variety of bristleworm (from the Caribbean, not the Pacific). If that were the case, I'd definitely be suspicious of the bristleworm, because in that one variety of bristleworm, their sting will create the injury and decay they then devour.

 

[Maverick27]

Thanks everyone for the input. Actually the featherduster lost its head a while back, i think a peppermint shrimp ripped it off, or it maybe fell off from illness. Not sure. Heard peppermint shrimp do the same thing, eat something thats dying. Either way the peppermint shrimp died haha. Cause isn't known because he just never came back out ( 30g cube ) so i figured id see him eventually. I noticed a few small of these bristleworms, but only recently. Haven't added really any rock except for one that was attached to an xenia. Any way to ID if its a fireworm or reg. bristleworm?