What is this worm? ID help please.

I

Inocense

New member
This worm was a hitchhiker that went into my tank with some live rock. The worm has not harmed anything nor does it bother the peppermint shrimp or nassarius snails that tend to crawl all over it. They don't bother him much either. I figured it to be a bristle worm but when I show others the photo's of it they say, "That isn't like any other bristle worm that I have ever seen!". It is about 5.5 - 6 inches long and he only comes out when I throw food in the tank, lights on or not, he doesn't care.

I don't mind it being in my tank but I want to know WHAT it is.. It's body has changed a bit over the last couple of weeks and it has more of an iridescent sheen to it now. It is coming out of the LR more often to grab some fish pellets off the sandbed, so it appears to be getting thicker.

Ideas?

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Bristleworm get yourself a large Coral banded shrimp or grab him with some tongs or a turkey baster and send him for a swim down the tidy bowl
 
fireworm for sure! I just pull one out of my tank that's 7 inches long. Fire worm are bad for your fingers and corals! Mine never bother any corals but it just looks gross in my tank so i decided to trap it and throw it in the trash can :P
 
Ryandragon said:
fireworm for sure! I just pull one out of my tank that's 7 inches long. Fire worm are bad for your fingers and corals! Mine never bother any corals but it just looks gross in my tank so i decided to trap it and throw it in the trash can :P
Click to expand...

How'd ya trap it ???
thnx Bob





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Ugh.. Dang it!.. I attempted to catch it twice with my 10" tweezers and it just slipped right out of em! The second time I got a clump of "skin" and bristles!.. He hid for a good week and I didn't see him. But now he is reappearing only at night and he has gotten bigger, so now I have to get him out of there..
 
Ryan, how did you trap it? I have heard that you can use a pill bottle and a straw but I don't think this thing is getting into a straw... :-/

I have also heard that a piece of shrimp in a nylon stocking on the sand bed works also, something about the bristles getting stuck in the nylon?
 
Ok.. Gonna try that! Thank you! I will let you know how it pans out. I am kinda afraid to see the entire thing out of the rock.. It's gonna be like a sea monster..! LOL
 
That's def not a fireworm. Everyone calm down. It is a totally regular, run-of-the-mill bristleworm. Totally harmless and nothing to worry about. If it bothers you, go ahead and get rid of it. But rest assured you have more than one in your tank. I consider them a sign of tank maturity. Just don't pet it.
 
just stick a shrimp in the bottom of a nylon stocking, use a piece of PVC to hold the opening of the stocking open, then when the worm goes in for the food they crawl in too far and get tangled.
 
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