Bright Red Worm?
- Thread starter awillemd1
- Start date
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Fluff
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hard to tell from the pic but probably some sort of polychaete worm. Likely harmless but if you have corals, you may want to keep an eye on it.
awillemd1
Aquarium Advice Activist
Thank you! I apologize for the picture. I don't have a very good digital camera.
I forgot to add a few observations. These worms spend all their time under the sand. I caught the one in the picture with a coat hanger and I was able to place him on a rock. They don't seem to have bristles like the fire worms or bristle worms, but he does seem to have some sort of feelers on at least one end of his body. I have at least 10 places in my sand bed where I can see these bright red feelers sticking out of the sand about 1 or 2 mm. I think there must be a worm under each of these. Should I be concerned with these worms becoming too populated? Should I add something that would eat them, possibly an arrow crab (I read somewhere that these will eat bristle worms)? :?
Thanks in advance for more advice.
awillemd1
I forgot to add a few observations. These worms spend all their time under the sand. I caught the one in the picture with a coat hanger and I was able to place him on a rock. They don't seem to have bristles like the fire worms or bristle worms, but he does seem to have some sort of feelers on at least one end of his body. I have at least 10 places in my sand bed where I can see these bright red feelers sticking out of the sand about 1 or 2 mm. I think there must be a worm under each of these. Should I be concerned with these worms becoming too populated? Should I add something that would eat them, possibly an arrow crab (I read somewhere that these will eat bristle worms)? :?
Thanks in advance for more advice.
awillemd1
Fluff
Aquarium Advice Addict
That description helps. 
How big is the worm itself? I have an idea of what they are but need to know size to be sure. An arrow crab will take care of your bristleworms but will also take care of any desirable ones as well. You can control your bristleworm population by limiting thier food. Feeding less often, or less amounts so that it's all consumed by the fish will help.
How big is the worm itself? I have an idea of what they are but need to know size to be sure. An arrow crab will take care of your bristleworms but will also take care of any desirable ones as well. You can control your bristleworm population by limiting thier food. Feeding less often, or less amounts so that it's all consumed by the fish will help.awillemd1
Aquarium Advice Activist
The one I was able to get out of the sand was around 5 to 7 inches long.
awillemd1
awillemd1
Fluff
Aquarium Advice Addict
Wow, ok. What I was thinking wouldn't be that long. Well, without a clearer pic (especially of the head area) I can only say it's "probably" a harmless polychaete worm. Sorry I can't help more.
awillemd1
Aquarium Advice Activist
I will see what I can do about getting a better picture. One thing I noticed that I think must be related to what species he is, is that I could see little light and dark rings as he moved from the rock back into the sand. Also, I think he has tufts of feelers either on his head or his tail and that is what I see poking up in my sand bed.
awillemd
awillemd
Fluff
Aquarium Advice Addict
Try googling eunicidae worm. See if that's your critter.
awillemd1
Aquarium Advice Activist
Thank you!
I came up with this link. I didn't notice any legs which the top two pictures seem to have, but I will check again to see if I may have missed them somehow.
awillemd1
http://mangrove.nus.edu.sg/pub/seashore/text/126.htm
I came up with this link. I didn't notice any legs which the top two pictures seem to have, but I will check again to see if I may have missed them somehow.
awillemd1
http://mangrove.nus.edu.sg/pub/seashore/text/126.htm
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