worms

[dhuv]

I am starting to see lots of works in a certain part of my tank. I know there are good worms and bad worms but I dont know what these are. These worms are actually on/in the live rock. They are very thin and long. They have strips of grey and black (| | | | | | | ). I see them moving the snail waste as well as some other loose stuff form one place to another but I dont know if I should be removing them or not. They are always in a certain part of the rock and I can remove them if needed.

Does anyone know what these are and any recommendations on what I should do?

 

[Anonymous]

dhuv....
a picture is worth a thousand species!
Can ya get a pic?

 

[Anonymous]

Is this it?

 

[Anonymous]

Pit Pat...what worm is that and is it safe..I have one in my tank burrowed into some LR..It came out once and shot a stream of brown God knows what into the water column...

 

[Anonymous]

What you probably saw was a Sipunculan or peanut worm. It is not a polychaete, rather it is in a phylum of it's own. Sipunculans are harmless animals that bore holes in rock and are general surface moppers.

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/main_p ... _rock3.htm

The hitchhicker FAQ at the top of the page is a great resource.

 

[romunov]

It came out once and shot a stream of brown God knows what into the water column...

Those were probably gametes (sperm or eggs).

There are quite a few species of polychaetes and without a good picture, we really can't say.

Generally, polychaetes don't harm healthy livestock and are benificial clean up crew.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey, I have several of those. They just strecth out. grab some food and duck back in. Pretty cool to watch.

 

[romunov]

I also have worms that come out, grab food and go back in. The problem is, the food is small crustaceans, baby snails or worms.