What the heck is this thing???

[khusson1]

Could someone out there please identify this "worm"? I have two that I can see. They only come out when the lights are off. When light is shown on them, they seem to ravel back into themselves and lind of reminf you of an elephant's trunk, Also, on the one picture, you can see what i'm pretty sure is the byproduct, aka crap, of this thing. The crap looks like a string with sand stuck to it. I've watched it go potty a few times now and the "sandy string" just slowly starts coming out of a hole in the rock and then drops off. So this "crap" reminds me of a feather duster worm's body when they use the substrate to form thier "shell".

 

[rssjsb]

Looks like a peanut worm. Harmless scavenger.

 

[khusson1]

thanks rssjsb! I did a search on peanut worms and found ones that look the same as what I have. Thanks so much for IDing it!

 

[nanobuds]

last pic shows bristle worms

 

[khusson1]

yes, thats pretty obvious. Have quite a few, but, well, whatta ya gonna do?

 

[rssjsb]

Yep - both are good guys.

 

[khusson1]

good guys as far as the bristle worms being harmless? I thought they were bad? Not terrible, but undesirable???

 

[SALT WATER CRAZ]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14358743#post14358743 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by khusson1
good guys as far as the bristle worms being harmless? I thought they were bad? Not terrible, but undesirable???

No you want them they are a free part of your clean up crew. And you can keep them in check by not over feeding.

 

[SALT WATER CRAZ]

And khusson1

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

 

[khusson1]

Thanks SW Craz!

 

[rssjsb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14358783#post14358783 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SALT WATER CRAZ
No you want them they are a free part of your clean up crew. And you can keep them in check by not over feeding.

What he said. People tend to freak out about them for some reason, but they're good.

 

[khusson1]

Well, I obtained a little over 60lbs LR for $75 from a lady who had it for roughly 2 years in a tank. Did I mention I got a 5"-6" Hippo tank, lemonpeel angel, strawberry basslet and blue-green chromis for $75 as well?? ($150 all together) I had to scrub off algae and pluck a ton of bristle worms off of it, but I got some decent sized pieces, so IMO it was well worth it. Her tank was infested by the bristle worms, so I know having a ton of them wasnt good. Thanks for the info!

 

[khusson1]

*tang

 

[reef321]

i had a bunch of bristle wormsin my tank, and the only reason i didn't like them was because sometimes they would sting me when i put my hand in the tank.