spaghetti worms, a good thing?

[fullmonti]

I have always had spaghetti worms in fug/frag tank, but until recently none in main tank. I have a diamond goby, thought he was eating them if they showed up in main tank. I now have many in main tank & saw the goby dig one up the other day & just spit it out. Am wondering why it took them a year to colonize in main tank, & if this is a good sign or bad?

 

[jasonrp104]

My tank's full of them as for it being good or bad...they do move my sand a little and eat the leftovers but I've noticed the big ones can be a little messy. I siphoned one monster out of the sand that looked like it was surrounded by dirt.

 

[mscarpena]

They can sting or irritate some corals especially zoo's. I am always leery of them. Are they bad no not really, but can be pesky.

 

[855012 reefer]

they are neither good or bad. the worst thing they have done in my tank is steal food from my corals on the sand bed

 

[fullmonti]

any guesses why it took a year for them to show up?

I had been trying to starve algae out before, thought now that it's gone & things are more normal that might be why they weren't in the tank before.

 

[LeslieH]

There are two methods of reproduction in this family of worms (Cirratulidae), either sexual by producing eggs & sperm or asexual by splitting into sections that regenerate the missing bits. If your species is strictly an asexual type then it would have taken a while for them to successfully colonize another area.

Cirratulids are beneficial tank inhabitants as they eat detritus & recycle it as available nutrients for filter & DOM feeders. They do tend to collect silt around themselves as a pseudo-tube. Some of them produce mild chemicals that make them unpalatable to fish but they're not toxic and they don't have stings. I haven't a clue why a coral would be bothered by one.

 

[fullmonti]

OK sounds like there not going to be a problem, so I'll leave them to do there thing.

thanks all

 

[Montireef]

Leave it alone. I've got tons of them and no issues at all so far.