Found a Worm?

[DaughterwantsNemo]

I turned the lights on in the room where we keep our 8 Gal bio Cube. Under a small piece of live rock on top of the white sand I saw what looked to be either the tail and head of one worm or two worm looking worms.

They or it is brown/maroon in color. Kinda like a worm with open head lots of teeth, as one end, was moving a large piece of sand. It quickly borrowed backwards into it's hiding place under the rock or back into the sand.

What am I looking at?

What am I in for?

 

[Maya]

Can you get a pic? It may just be a bristle worm.

 

[DaughterwantsNemo]

I wish, this little worm sunk back into the sand with record speed. I wouldn't even begin to know how to lure it back out.

 

[Maya]

Well the good news is that most worms are beneficial for your tank. They come in your live rock as hitchhikers. Don't try to handle them as most of them have sharp spines and such for protection and the rash they cause is less than comfortable. You will rarely see them during the day and they will rid your tank of lots of nasties (carcasses, old food and such). If you want to keep the population at a minimum, try not to overfeed. If you are worried about the actual identification of the species, google marine worms or polychaetes and you will get a selection of around 9000+ species to browse. If you begin to have snails, crabs, or other CUC missing then you should start to research. Without a photo, I can't begin to hazard a guess. Some of the common tank hitchhikers are spaghetti worms, bristles worms, fire worms, and lug worms. Good
Luck!

 

[DaughterwantsNemo]

Now that you mention missing snails and crabs. I thought that my hermit crabs ate my turbo snails. And now I have two crabs from three and no snails at all. I purchased a large snail thinking that it's mass would not entice the crabs, but now a large worm might answer some missing tank members. I will def try and get a picture of this sneaky creeper

 

[Maya]

Lol. Google eucinid worms and see if that might look somewhat similar. There are several varieties of eucinids.