Its me again! Another newly spotted creature

[Dixiechicken82]

So I was checking out my starfish that had split in two (different thread!), when I spotted something completely new! It's in a crevice/hole in the live rock so I'm not sure I'm seeing all of it. It reminds me of a "furry" catepillar. It's pink and and has white spikes or "fur". It's quite small...maybe 1/4 centimeter wide and maybe 1/2 a centimeter long...if I'm seeing all of it. I wish I had a camera so I could show you guys!! I know it's a long shot, but does anyone know what this is?

[Dangerdoll]

what you're seeing is a bristle worm.
http://www.cdislands.com/photos_hawaii/haw14/xha40711.jpg

[Dixiechicken82]

Dangerdoll,
this one is round like a catepiller, that one looks flat. And the white spikes & bump things are all around its body. It has gone in a hole or something b/c I can barely see it right now. I've been checking off & on today...i'm eager to see the whole thing and find out what it is!

[mogurnda]

If it looks like a spiky sausage, it may be a cucumber.

[Dangerdoll]

try this site, they have a bunch of different bristles and fire worms. Including some that are more rounded and caterpillar like... in particular, row 2, 4th pic from the left
http://reefimages.com/Worms/Worms.htm

[Dixiechicken82]

I don't know why, but I can go to reefimages.com, click on the invert section, but when I click on worms or anything else in that section it opens a blank page! Grrr! I'll try searching for pics of worms & cucumbers elsewhere. This is a new tank, maybe 7 months old. We haven't bought any live rock or sand in months, and the tank's water parameters are just now getting into the better numbers. So could a cucumber have lived through the high nitrates and such that a new tank goes through?? I thought they were pretty sensitive creatures. If that's the case I guess I should rule them out and search for worm ID pics, right?

Also, I turned on the room lights late last night (left the tank lights off) and I could see some things better than ever! The creature in question had dissappeared back in that hole in the rock (he is partially out this afternoon). I saw all the tiny Copepods, I believe they are called, scurring around. They are tiny...a little bigger than the sand grains we have, but do they get much bigger? I saw some crustacean like creatures that were the size of really big fleas! They seemed to be kind of clear with a black line going down the back. Are these Copepods too? I'm going to try the same thing tonight and see what else I can see. It was easier to see this way than when the tank lights were on & I'm armed with a flashlight!

[mogurnda]

I saw some crustacean like creatures that were the size of really big fleas! Those sound like amphipods.

[Dixiechicken82]

thanks Mo! I'll go read up on them!

The search for pics of worms & cucumbers isn't going so well! Any suggestions??

[Dangerdoll]

I'm pretty confident it's a bristle worm, there's all different looks to the little guys. They start out small but can grow to several inches long..... it's a shame ypou could see the image on reef images, they had such good shots there and there's no linking to the pics... here's some other pic's I found in the meantime... (side note, the sci. name for bristles is chloeia)

http://www.hamshahri.org/hamnews/1377/770425/p16-2.jpg
http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/collections/p-col-annelid2.jpg
http://www.oceanskydiver.com/gallery/album/sharp%20island%20iv/photos/bristle%20worm.jpg
http://www.divepensacola.com/albums/pickens/bristle_worm.jpg
http://www.daveread.com/FlowerGardens/August2003/small/bristle%20worm.jpg

[Gealcath]

If you want to be real surprised, heres what you do. Get a red filter light or a flashlight with a red filter lens. Turn all the lights off so the aquarium is in complete darkness, then look at it using the red filter flashlight after a couple minutes. You will be amazed of what you will see (most critters cant see red light, so they think its still dark)

[Dixiechicken82]

Danger, do these bristle worms burrow through live rock? I've been seeing piles of little balls of "dirt" on some of the rock. Today I noticed it falling off the rock & on to the sand like something was tunneling & pushing out "dirt". There is much more of this "dirt" now. I did see something that looked like the 1st bristle worm you showed me "slithering" through a tunnel in the rock. It was fast & seemed to have a pretty long body. I think I must have been looking at its tail all bunched up the other day when I said it was round, bc the thing I'm seeing now has the same flat pink tail as the 1st pic you showed. Where there is one, there are more?? Do you know the name of this bristle worm so I can read up on it??

Mo, that is a great idea. I actually saw that technique on tv last night on a bug show. I'll have a red light by Monday. Can't wait to see what happens!

Thanks Ya'll!!

[fish addict]

Might the first worm mentioned be a peanut worm? i find these in my aquarium and they could be interpreted to have little "hairs" on them. More like sand paper though.

[Dangerdoll]

Dixie, I'm not 100% sure if they burrow but I would guess they do. The ones in my tank generally keep in the sand as well as poke through the holes in the live rock. Do they force the holes like earthworms in dirt? I don't know.... I always just assumed that they made their ways through the many holes that are throughput the rock... but I'm new to this too, only a year or so into SW so I couldn't say for sure.

[jaesauce]

Are these worms a bad thing to have in the tank? Where do they come from and how do you get rid of them?

Jae