guestion about worm

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Better Dayz

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Mar 19, 2003
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hello AC

well at least i think its a worm. anyhoo , its striped ,
blackish brown & white, they only come out when lights are
out(i only seen 2 of them) they stay in the live rock and extend
by streching out to eat(the algea i think) they'er about 1/16"
thick. And are they harmless


Thankz for repliez
 
Have you looked for them on the hitch hiker references? http://reefs.org/hhfaq/

Most worms that you see come up from the sand/rock are harmless. I get suspicious when I see worms that are attached to fish/corals, or they are always near the coral, never elsewhere in the tank. If they are just in the sand, they probably are feeding on inbed fauna, or plankton/free floating algaes/diatoms, etc.
 
yep looked there didn't see a mach the last 3 nites that i
watched them they never left there hole. i don't have any
corals and such. (yet) should i pull them out or leave
them for now?

thank for your reply orion
 
Innocent til proven guilty--they don't sound harmful to me. Unless you suspect them of injuring something in your tank, I'd just let them be. There are many kinds of worms, but only a few are parasitic, and very few of them could survive for any length of time without a host.
 
Here's another possibility. I have one (or more) brittle stars that extend arms 3-4" from under a rock that match your description. In over a year, I have never seen the body. Their stripy arms extend pretty far at dinner time, snaking along. It differs from a worm in that the arms taper, and aren't stretchy like an extending worm. Plus, there's no mouth on the end, they just come to a point, bringing food back under the rock if they find anything. I'd love to post a photo, but haven't got a good one yet.
 
Good point. If it's a star, the leg will thin down to a very fine point at the end, and usually you will see 2 or three very close to each.
 
yeah theres a mouth on them. i'll leave 'em in for now
thankz for the replyz

is there other sites out there that show live rock buggers?
i looked around & could'nt find nothing grrrrrrrrrr!

agian thankz for all the help and info
 
There's a sticky at the top of this thread with several links that migh thelp. The problem is, there are thousands of hitch hikers. The common ones are easily identified (copopods and bristle worms, for example), but a many don't show up with every shipment of live rock. Things like crabs and worms--there are so many possibilities that without a picture, it can be hard to identify even a family, much less genus and species. Even so, the links up there are pretty helpful!
 
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