Wow! Worm question

[Clown Monarch]

Alright, I've got these pink/orange spiny-looking worms all over the tank, you only see them occasionally. No big deal.

Yesterday I'm feeding mysis shrimp and watching to make sure everyone is eating and looks healthy, when I see this worm start to stretch out of the live rock. This thing, fully strecthed, was easily 7-8 inches long. Being in the perfect place at the perfect time, a piece of mysis shrimp just happened to land right under his nose. Like something out of Dune, the head (I'm assuming it's the head) opened up, swallowed the shrimp whole, and went back into the rock.

This wasn't a little piece of a shrimp, it was a full size mysis shrimp. Now I'm wondering if worms that big can pose problems to corals/anemones etc.

Any input?

[c0mf0rt]

LOL...... it's all about the spice... just ride the worms out of the tank....

[Brad]

Eunicid worm. Your comment about the worm from Dune is the same thing that I said when I first saw one. Depending on the particular species, they can get quite big. That's an understatement really. Someone had a link to a story about a guy who pulled a 7 foot long one out of his tank.

I have at least five in my tank of various sizes. I suspect one recently mowed down my pulsing Xenia (it is currently recovering). They will eat just about anything they are willing to reach. I can't see them taking a fish, although to watch them they seem armed to do so. Currently, one is living directly under my carpet anemone and seems uninterested in eating the anemone.

There's a good picture of one in my gallery.