Omg What Is This?

[saltysand]

I looked at my tank tonight and saw something coming out of what I thought was an empty hermit crab shell and looked like it was trying to eat my bubble bee snail. It was some kind of worm with bristles has some brown greenish yellowish rings on it.hubby moved the shell to get it away from my snail and it retreated back into the shell.what is this thing?i checked in the hitchichers thread and didn't see one. what do i do with it?

 

[seannmelly]

Originally Posted by saltysand
I looked at my tank tonight and saw something coming out of what I thought was an empty hermit crab shell and looked like it was trying to eat my bubble bee snail. It was some kind of worm with bristles has some brown greenish yellowish rings on it.hubby moved the shell to get it away from my snail and it retreated back into the shell.what is this thing?i checked in the hitchichers thread and didn't see one. what do i do with it?

If it has bristles on the both outside edges of it's body, its a bristle worm. Post a pic. We had that prob w/ bristle worms...they get rather big...and FAST . Had on that was close to 10". You can make ur own trap if you wanted to catch it. If its in the shell still i'd carefully pick it up n throw the worm away. Just dont touch it

 

[kreckner]

might very well be a bristle worm. Were the lights on the tank or off when you saw the worm going towards the snail. The bristle worms I've seen only really come out when the main lights are off and the lunar lights are on(night cycle). And I have heard that bristleworms can be predatory if they get big enough.

 

[saltysand]

yes the lights were off . the only difference between this one and the one in the pics in the hitchichers thread is the pic in the thread is white ours has color.its about 2 in long but very skinny.

 

[seannmelly]

Originally Posted by Kreckner
might very well be a bristle worm. Were the lights on the tank or off when you saw the worm going towards the snail. The bristle worms I've seen only really come out when the main lights are off and the lunar lights are on(night cycle). And I have heard that bristleworms can be predatory if they get big enough.
I have deff seen our bristle worm out in our old tank while the main lights are on. It's that sort of creature that makes your skin crawl. Finally somehow, it got stuck in the overflow and that tank has been broken down (and for sale in the classifieds). The trap that you can make sorta works the same way. our bristle worm was a tan color

 

[saltysand]

what do they do?

 

[seannmelly]

Originally Posted by saltysand
what do they do?
to tell u the truth i really dont know. we ended up movin the small fish that was in that tank to a cube tank and put aggressive fish in that tank w/ hopes that they would
1) eat it
2) it wouldn't be able to eat them
i do know there are different kinds, their bristles can cut ur hand and some are actually venemous :scared: . i also know they are horrible looking creatures and do grow fast. i think it actually "hatched" out of live rock we received. the one we had didnt look like it had a big enough mouth to eat say a trigger but maybe it coulda eatin a chromis. just didnt wanna take that chance.
i know when bristle worms are smaller, 6 line wrasses will/should take care of them. Hence, is y we have one in our new 125

it isnt really a desirable thing in an aquarium, ive heard of ppl making traps for them. my suggestion is grab that shell its in outta ur tank w/ a net and dispose of it.

 

[saltysand]

I got the shell out and put it in a couple cups of very salty water. it didn't come out so i don't know if it was in the shell or not. i read on the hitchiker forum that if you put rock or whatever they are hiding in in very salty water they will come outt but it didn't so i threw it outside . hope it is gone but I guess i will find out later.wow scary stuff lol

 

[tscuda]

I wouldnt worry too much about it. They eat the extra food and crap off the bottom. When they get large is when you start to watch them. I have not seen any of mine trying to eat anything alive. But I did see them trying to take food from my hermits. But if you feel you have to remove them use rubber gloves and a tweesers.

 

[saltysand]

Originally Posted by tscuda
I wouldnt worry too much about it. They eat the extra food and crap off the bottom. When they get large is when you start to watch them. I have not seen any of mine trying to eat anything alive. But I did see them trying to take food from my hermits. But if you feel you have to remove them use rubber gloves and a tweesers.

wouldn't it be better to get rid of it before it gets big then especially since it was eating a 3 buck snail. To me these snaiils are expensive and I m not providing them as a diet for some nasty worm.

thanks for you quick replies and help. :cheer:

 

[tscuda]

Well kill it if you must. But that nasty ol worm will be more good then harm. If it was eating your snail then the snail was prolly on its way out anyways. I have a 100 or more in my tank and sump with no problems. But if you have 1 there's a lot more in there. I put 1 in my sump that is at least 10 inches along with snails 2 hermits 2 yellow tail damsels and 2 crabs of some type. They all been living in there for at least 3 months now.

 

[thomas712]

When is everyone going to learn that clean up crews are more or less expendable. Not that we don't need them its just that snails die, shrimp die, hermits die, other crabs and critters die. They need to be replaced periodically.
As to the worm attacking...HA!...Lets say I'd be far more worried about a whelk in my tank than I would be a regular old bristle worm.

 

[saltysand]

I am sorry i asked

btw i know cleanup crews need to be replaced but i haven't had them 2 weeks yet so lets just say they didn't need to be replaced