Worm ID, please

[RumLad]

Leslie H, Can you identify this fine worm I have in my system?

I have only seen one of these present, always around this clump of Zoas (which seem to be receding lately, but that coould be my lights), only seen at night, stretched out it can be up to 9 or so inched long.
here are some photos of the head, tail, and body, sorry but I couldn't get a real close up of the head in action.

Thanks in advance.

Head

Tail

head on shot

 

[RumLad]

Better close up of head shot

 

[LeslieH]

Those are very good aquarium shots and I agree - it's a very fine worm. You may change your mind after reading this, however..... It's in the family Syllidae, and possibly the species Syllis onklyochaeta or one of its relatives. That species is known to eat Xenia. Do you have any? If not, take a close look at your zoas to see if any of them have puncture marks or little chunks missing from them. I wrote about them in another thread -
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1019565&highlight=Syllis

 

[RumLad]

Leslie,
Thanks a bunch, you truly are a worm godess.

I used to have Xenia in the tank, but it slowly went downhill and disappeared, all but one small patch which was moved to the opposite side from said Zoa's above.

Thanks agian.

PS - Any tips on catching this guy?

If I used the bottle and bait trick, what type of bait?

 

[LeslieH]

Try taking all your xenia & zoas out if you can, then sacrifice a polyp to do the bottle & bait. If it gets hungry enough it should go into the bottle.

 

[RumLad]

In the words of Ken "Hawk" Harrelson....

He Gone


Was really quite easy. After lights out, the target returned to his normal haunts ie: the zoa rock. Once he was totally on the rock a quick swoop with the net landed all safely within.

A quick gawk of amazement at it's beauty, followed by a gasp of grossness from the significant other, and it was out to the trash bin for Syllis onklyochaeta - or Silly, as he became known.

Thanks again Leslie


PS - Your PM box is full.

 

[LeslieH]

The silly syllids are a well known group of pretty polys.

You KILLED it?! Worm murderer! At least you could have feed it to a fish or crab and supported the circle of life

I'm glad you were able to get it out so easily.

Private messages now accepted by the mailbox.

 

[SaltyDog007]

I'm new to the hobby and just wanted to clarify, are the two worms on the sand in the "Tail" photo Bristleworms?

 

[kawicivic]

yup

 

[danch]

Harmless detritivores, to emphasize.

 

[hungsta]

Hey, whats that worm at the bottom in the pic "TAIL" i seen it once on my LR its exactly like that worm at the bottom of that tail pic.. any idea what it is??

Hung

 

[fotoman68]

so bristleworms ARE harmless ?

 

[danch]

'bristleworm' potentially covers a lot of worms, most of which are harmless. The ones with the one red end (on the sand in the above photo) are harmless (helpful, actually), and seem to be the most commonly seen in reef tanks.