strange bristle worm

juggalo124

juggalo124

New Member
ok forgive me if all bristle worms do this, but i was laying in bed looking at my tank and i saw a little white thing swimming up and down in my tank so i went over and took a closer look. I turned the lights on in my room and saw that it wasnt really white, it was more like a bristle worm with a clear looking membrane kind of thing over it, with its legs sticking through the membrane. I guess the moon lights made it appear white. it swam similar to the way a leech would, sort of flailing its body around. Well after a few more seconds of swimming he landed on a rock and crawled into a hole.
I thought maybe it was the light that made him hide so i turned it off again and waited for him to come back out, only this time i had tweezers and a bowl ready. he came swimming back out probably five or so minutes later and with one swoop of the tweezers he was in the bowl.
so he is removed from the tank temporarily, and i would like to know if he is relatively harmless, simular to bristleworms, or if he is something to dispose of. thanks
-Trenton
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
It's called an Epitoke. Many species of Bristle Worms take this form during sexual reproduction. On some, the entire worm body is converted to gametes and swims around blindly until it collides with something and bursts into thousands of gametes.
Others just convert their tail and lose that part to the process.
 
juggalo124

juggalo124

New Member
i thought about taking a picture but i figured it wouldnt show up to well, plus my cameras memory card is full of christmas pictures.
thanks for the info bang guy. i guess he wouldnt have been any trouble to leave in but at least now i can rest assured i dont have a crazy infestation of killer worms in my tank.
this message board is great. thanks again
-Trenton
 
sw65galma

sw65galma

Active Member

Originally posted by Bang Guy
It's called an Epitoke. Many species of Bristle Worms take this form during sexual reproduction. On some, the entire worm body is converted to gametes and swims around blindly until it collides with something and bursts into thousands of gametes.
Others just convert their tail and lose that part to the process.
OMG I witnessed this happen, I never thought to ask what it was since people would think i was crazy!.
But it went nutz all around my tank till it burst into 1000s of eggs. I was like WTF!
Now I know what it was...
Does that mean now i prolly have like a billion bristle worms in my tank..
 
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