What is this????

[Maya]

Hey just came upon a worm Oenone fulgida. Check him out. Sounds nasty. Did your clown happen to be covered in mucous?

 

[Joyler]

Awww what kind of clown? Well if we can help more let us know...but don't get to discouraged!

 

[Crepe]

My vote is a young eunicid worm. It has the same form: few lateral spines, worm like anterior, preys on things by attacking and drawing into a hole, the appendages are focused on the front end of the animal. example:
YouTube - Bobbit Worm Attacking Crab

 

[melosu58]

My guess would have been bristle or spaggetti worm. I guess we ruled that out. Never really seen that before. When you had it out of the water it looked like a spaggetti worm. Good luck in ID`ing it. Sorry I could not help.

 

[mr_X]

it's not Oenone fulgida. they don't look like that and won't be caught quite so easily. they also don't go after live fish. they smother and eat snails and clams.
my guess would be a common bristleworm that got bit by one of those vamps from blade 2...

 

[Crepe]

I think it looks more like a:

Mutalisk.

 

[Maya]

Lol. Nothing I could find looked like that thing so I started researching worms that sometimes eat fish. According to the web, the fugida worm will sometimes eat sick or weak fish. Bobbit sounds like it could definitely be a possibility but... The Problem is the two pics of the same worm don't even look alike. I would freak if I found something that looked like that in my tank! Who knew live rock could be soooo scary?

 

[Fishbone13]

Lol. Nothing I could find looked like that thing so I started researching worms that sometimes eat fish. According to the web, the fugida worm will sometimes eat sick or weak fish. Bobbit sounds like it could definitely be a possibility but... The Problem is the two pics of the same worm don't even look alike. I would freak if I found something that looked like that in my tank! Who knew live rock could be soooo scary?

h
Hey Maya, yeah I was up pretty late last night and didn't see any other guys like that thing. Well lets hope you guys come across someth'n cuz i got a long day ahead of me take'n my little guy out for his first Easter. I married into a big family so it's gonna be kinda hecktic. Anyway good luck guys and thanks for try'n to help.

 

[mr_X]

here's an Oenone fulgida i was able to capture. they are yellowish, and in the place of bristles, they have tiny legs. they also have visible eyes.

here is another...notice the difference between the common bristle worms and it-

 

[Maya]

Thanks mr x! I had never heard of them until last night. But, quite frankly, there are a lot of things that I haven't seen. I do enjoy the research though... Must be the college kid coming back out in me.
How common are these things? According to what I've read these more predatory Worms are fairly common and can get quite large. And unfortunately, actual photographic identification seems quite hit and miss. I really appreciate the effort to post your pics.

 

[mr_X]

these are quite common in my experience, but very hard to see because they can recoil in the blink of an eye. they do see, and in many cases will see you before you see them. the largest i have seen stretched out to about a foot, but was very thin, like the diameter of a BB maybe. they spread a mucous over the victim which smothers it to death. they can actually burrow a hole right through a snail or clam shell, and then they chow down like it's thanksgiving.
the worms that get really big are the eunicid worms.

 

[Maya]

Okay. Thanks! We have a multitude of bristle worms and they are very efficient cleaners. Watched one try to pull the carcass of a turbo snail 10 times its size into a hole one day. But I believe the difference is that they scavenge and these other worms kill? Or will the bristles attempt to take out living livestock as well? This has definitely reaffirmed my desire to seed base rock with our live rock for our 125 upgrade.

 

[BallinCrew10]

It looks like the tentacles from the movie "The Mist" lol

 

[mr_X]

the common bristle worm won't go after anything living. it might try something that's nearly dead, but i would see that as a positive anyway.
here is a pretty good reference-
Live Rock Hitch Hikers

all in all, i would say the presence of most of the worms on that page is a benefit.

 

[mr_X]

It looks like the tentacles from the movie "The Mist" lol

i bet they got the idea for that monster from the ocean creature.

 

[Maya]

Thanks Mr. X. That is one of the most informative articles I've seen. Unfortunately its going to be almost impossible to try to definitively ID this one. Too many choices and too many variables. The good news is it's out of the tank. The bad news is it cost him a fish. This hobby is such a crapshoot. You just don't ever know what your bringing home. Any advice on how to try to avoid mishaps like this? I've been told that is it's wet when you get it, it needs to be quarantined. Is that overkill or good practice?

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

Tens of thousands of bristle worms invade Florida beach in 'mating frenzy' | Mail Online
is this similar? im only judging via the photos x
myrianida pachycera has a similar form but no close colour... did u have another shot of it?

 

[Fishbone13]

It looks like the tentacles from the movie "The Mist" lol

Hahaha, it does look like that thing.

 

[mr_X]

if you don't mind going through the trouble, not much harm can come to things that are QT'd. i don't like the added stress it puts on fish, because rarely are QT tanks 'scaped so that they resemble the fish's natural environment, and i believe it really freaks them out. as for live rock and corals, yep- it's not a bad idea to QT those.

mouth brooder- i don't think those are the common bristle worms we have in our tanks. the ones we have don't swim, for one. at least not to that extent. actually, those in the video look more like the OP's predator than anything else IMO.