What is this snail rider?

[NanoReefers]

Yup isn't this fun?



To my knowledge they've been together happily about two months.



My best guess is some kind of segmented worm.



Should this snail be worried?

 

[Betta132]

Strange. Any more information? Does it feel hard or soft? Does it move? Have you seen it eat?

 

[NanoReefers]

I was watching for a little longer. When the sucker slithered off the snail and made a bee line for the front right corner of the tank. At its longest stretch I'd say it was close to 4" long.



It seemed to be going after the pods! Unsuccessfully might I add.



Ultimately it met its demise. It ended up wrapping itself around that floating thermometer in the background. It was simple enough to remove and rinse down the drain.

B.t.w. I realized that I should have turned up the white spectrum on my led's sooner.

 

[cloak]

It looks kind of like the Syllid worm outlined in this link.

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml

 

[NanoReefers]

Thanks for the response. That's about what my best guess came to after snapping that last picture and scouring the net.

 

[LeslieH]

Definitely a syllid, but one with really strange behavior. I've never heard of one either riding a snail like that or going after small crustaceans.

 

[NanoReefers]

Yeah I have no clue. The tank is only 4 months old. Maybe it was behaving strangely because there's no suitable food source?