SW Worm ID F 13

FAQs about Marine Worms, Vermiform Animals Identification 13

Related Articles: Worms, Featherduster Worms,

Nudi/Worm ID? 10/6/08 Hello Everyone at WWM! <Art> Yet again I find that I need some advice, or, at least an ID of some sort... A few days ago I found this creature crawling around my 55 Gallon Reef Tank. I looked up the worm FAQ and had no luck. Whatever this thing is, it seems to be sensitive to light. If I have the lights off and shine a light on it, it quickly retracts into wherever it is anchored to. Another thing is, I've never seen it in it's entirety. So it could be a few inches long, or ...? The top of it has several "openings" <"Polyplacophora"> I guess you could call them, but I haven't been able to keep it in the open long enough to see if they actually open. It's kinda freaking me out. I was thinking a Nudibranch of some sort, but it looks like nothing in your 6 or so Nudibranch ID pages. Please help! I appreciate any info you can give me! -Art Perez <Is a Chiton... not harmful. Please read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/chitonidf.htm Bob Fenner>

Worm or what? 10/1/08 This thing is huge (silver dollar size), and I think it's moving relatively fast. It looks to me like a giant flat worm. <To me as well. Perhaps a Pseudoceros sp.> I guess it can't reproduce and I guess it might be the reason I have not had luck with shrimp in this tank and my serpent stars are being eaten slowly. <Mmm, doubtful it is this Platyhelminth...> That's a whole lot of guessing so maybe I'll just attach a picture and see what the experts think. Thanks, As always love this site, Jesse <Read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/flatworms.htm the linked files above. Bob Fenner>

Question about unknown worm -09/02/08 Hi. I've searched the entire internet by now i think. I spent a couple of hours at least, and i haven't managed to find an answer to my question. I found your page and hoped that you could help. I went on a vacation to Greece this summer and one of the days we had literally hundreds of these scary looking worms crawling the rocky bottom of the harbour. The locals referred to them as "Sea caterpillars" (translated from Greek). Some said they were poisonous, others not. <They are what we in the aquarium hobby call "Bristleworms"-- though this is a vague designation given to any number of different species of similar looking scavenging worms with stinging "bristles." The bristles can hurt you if you handle touch them with your bare hands (depending on the worm, how sensitive you are, and how much contact you have with it, the pain can vary from intense to minor irritation).> I attached a picture of the worm. What was this? I hoped you perhaps could email me the answer, or at least tell me when and where the answer is posted. <Please see here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/polychaetes.htm> Thank you so much for your help, I appreciate it! Regards Morten from Norway <Best, Sara M.>

Unidentified.. um.. worm? 08/15/2008 Hi, we are having a very hard time figuring out what this organism is in our 55-gal marine reef tank. I have spent hours on your site searching, but it's hard to know even what to search for. On one of the live rocks there was this spider web-looking flossy strings (not legs) floating in the water off the rock. <Oooh, a clue> Sometimes it would be there and sometimes it wouldn't be, and different lengths from 0 to over 6". Then I saw its source finally - something (maybe a worm of some kind?) <Likely so> that is definitely a little living thing sort of chews or eats the floss back in and then sends it back out, assumingly to catch more "food." The thing is tiny, its "head" being about 2mm in diameter and is down in a hole in the rock, never comes out, so I don't know how long it may be. It is dark in color, like black and brown and seems to have a hairy head, but is very hard to see and properly describe. Does this method of filter-feeding sound like any animal you know of? If so, is it dangerous to anything (it doesn't seem to be a threat to anything at all)? Thanks very very much. ~ C & R <... see the Net, WWM re "spaghetti or Medusa worms". Bob Fenner>

What Is This Worm? A Nemertean! 7/28/08 <Hi there, Wendy.> Can you identify this animal? <Yes, it's a beautiful little Nemertean (Phylum Nemertea, likely a species in the genus Notospermus), aka a Ribbon worm. Please see this link for more information/photos regarding: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ribnwrmidfaqs.htm> Fully stretched out it was about 4-5' long (I tore it apart accidentally when I pulled it out of the rock that it was in) <Woops!> Please help. Thanks, Wendy <No worries, you should be good to go! Take care, -Lynn>

Re: What Is This Worm? A Nemertean! 7/28/08 <Hello again, Wendy!> Thank you so much for your help. <You're very welcome.> I looked through this link it seems that it will be okay to keep it in my tank. But I would like to know what it eats. I have searched several areas and can't seem to find what it eats. <Small invertebrates, likely amphipods and such would be my guess. Nemerteans are predators and scavengers, and although some varieties can get very long indeed, the ones we usually run across (such as yours) seem to cause no significant negative impact on the livestock within the particular system.> Thanks again Wendy <It was my pleasure. Take care, -Lynn>

What's in the tank? Hair or Spaghetti worm -- 7/16/08 Hello all! <Hi Kathy!> Once again I am in need of a question answered... I have a 55 gallon saltwater tank. In January I purchased 65lbs of live rock. For the last 7 months I have been totally fascinated with the little creatures that are emerging. <It's the gift that keeps on giving, isn't it!> Yesterday I noticed what looked to me like long pieces of hair on the bottom, across the crushed coral substrate. I have long black hair so I thought some of it had gotten in the tank...but when I looked closer it was thread-like, dark and light alternating along the "thread" and it was moving!! Then I notice 3 or 4 more! All seemed to be stretching out from under a piece of the LR...and this morning when I fed the fish, these "threads" seemed to attach to the blood worms and mysis shrimp I had put in. They stretch out approximately 6 to 8 inches... in different directions. I've spent most of the morning reading and trying to identify, but I can't wait. My eyes are blurry and I have to know, "What's in my tank?" Can you give me a clue as to what this is so that I can begin, in a logical place, to look on the website, to research this little creature? <It sounds a lot like a harmless/beneficial Hair worm/Cirratulid (Family Cirratulidae), or possibly a Spaghetti worm/Terebellid (Family Terebellidae). Both are deposit/detritus feeders, as well as scavengers that make nice additions to a system. For more information and photos, please see the following links: http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic34114-11-3.aspx (last post on the page) See the Query 'Red worms with black Rings? 7/8/07' at this WWM link: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/wormidfaq10.htm http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/rs/index.php > OBTW I love, love, love, your website! <Thank you, thank you, thank you!> So much so that some days it's hard to do my work...mind and body keep drifting back to the PC :) <Heheee! I know the feeling!> Thanks so much, tootles, ~Kathy <You're very welcome, Kathy. Take care, -Lynn>

Re: What's in the tank? Hair or Spaghetti worm -- 7/17/08 <Hi Kathy> Well...creepy looking things.. but, I will keep them around, the more I watch them the more fascinating they are! <Indeed they are!> (I found a couple more :) ) thanks again! Tootles, ~Kathy <It was a pleasure! Take care, -Lynn>

Unidentified worm 6/24/08 Hello and thanks for your help in advance. I have a worm I found in my 46 gal. reef. It is 3/4 " long. It may be a Hawaiian feather duster worm that lost its crown two days ago. <Yes> It was stressed due to algae buildup I believe. This worm had a bite taken out of it - it looks like. <Yes... this is some "middle section"> My cherub angel has been hanging around the area I found the worm. <Not from this... something larger> (I found the worm in an oyster shell with a zoo colony). I also just got two new frags at an exchange on Saturday. Briarium was closest to the worm. The second picture is the underside of the worm. Any ideas? Thanks so much! Adina <Is part of an Errantiate Polychaete... see WWM, elsewhere re. Bob Fenner>

Swimming Worm ID: Epitoke - 6/2/08 Hi Crew! <Hi Jen!> Thanks for all of your help. <It's our pleasure.> My nano reef seems to be coming along pretty well thanks to you guys! <Yay!> Just an ID question for you today. I was relaxing, having breakfast, staring at my tank calmly enjoying my morning and admiring the new Xenia I brought home yesterday... when all of a sudden this white THING comes shooting up out of the rock and starts zipping around all over the tank. <Heheeee! I had a run in with one of these a few years back. It's a real eye opener, isn't it!> I mean clearly free swimming and really fast. <Yep. It's a rapid and distinctive shimmying/corkscrew motion that's interrupted with brief periods of inactivity.> It's about an inch and a half long. I got lucky and managed to catch it and take some pictures. <Appreciate it!> On closer inspection it's clearly some type of worm, <Yes, it's an errant Polychaete of some sort - in a reproductive phase.> ..segmented and with two very prominent eyes. It has two distinct sections, a sort of head/body section and a sort of tail section. It swims with an eel like motion, with the hair-like things rippling along the side of the tail section. <Good observations! What you're seeing is a harmless reproductive unit called an 'epitoke' or a 'swarmer'. Polychaetes reproduce in a number of ways, but worms such as yours take it to a whole other level. They change form, from what's originally a bottom dwelling/crawling animal to a free-swimming version. One of these changes involves the development of paddle-like structures, the 'hair-like things' you mentioned on the posterior end of the Epitoke. These enable the worm to swim up into the water column and spawn. In some species, the gamete filled posterior segment detaches and swims away on its own to spawn while the anterior/head section returns to the reef and eventually regenerates. At any rate, these epitokes rise up and gather in great numbers, perhaps in response to a lunar or tide cycle, and on cue release their gametes (eggs and sperm) into the currents.> I've attached photos for your enjoyment (you can sort of see the swimming motion in the second picture). Is this something to worry about? <Nope, not at all. For more information, please Google the term 'epitoke' or 'epitoky' and see the FAQ's/photos at this link re: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/wormidf11.htm Also, here are a couple of photos of an Epitoke I had in my tank for comparison. It had a very similar looking segmented posterior section and is in the Family Nereididae. Size-wise, it was a little over 4.5' long. http://wetwebfotos.com/usermedia/high/0/2470_44.jpg http://wetwebfotos.com/usermedia/high/0/2470_46.jpg > Should I put it back in the tank? <I wouldn't, not because it's harmful, but because you have a nano and the Epitoke is already out. The release of gametes and possible decay of the worm/section of the worm would just add to the bioload.> I can't lie, it scared the heck out of me and I definitely got the heebie jeebies! <Well, if it makes you feel any better, I had my face all the way up to the glass when I saw the one in my tank. I jumped back and screamed like a little girl! :-D> Thanks again!! <You're very welcome! Take care, -Lynn>

Please help me ID this hitchhiker -Peanut worn ID 5/12/08 Hi Crew, Thank for all for this great web site. I am learning all I can to correct all the newbie mistakes I've committed. <cool> Please see the attached photo. Can you identify this hitchhiker? <Yep... looks like a peanut worm. Please see here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/pnutwrmidfaqs.htm> It actually looks more like an eel than a worm. But it's too tiny (maybe 2 mm diameter) to be anything other than a worm?! This is the second time I've seen it out the live rock feeding. It's making a darting motion but I can't tell what it is eating. My tank is 14G BioCube with 2 Damsels (peacefully co-existing), various hermit crabs and snails, and variously beginner polyps. Thanks for your help! Evan
<De nada,
Sara M.>

Worm living in clam... Vermetid living on Tridacnid 5/4/08 Hey guys, <Tom> First, i <... I> just wanted to say i love this website. I use it to research everything i see going on in my tank. It's always been extremely helpful. Unfortunately, i couldn't find the answer to this and am hoping someone can help. <I'll try> I just purchased what i was told to be a Tridacna Clam a few hours ago. <Is> When i got it home, about an hour after i placed the clam in my tank, I noticed a worm coming out of the clam. <I see... a Vermetid snail on the outside... end of the shell... is this what you're referring to?> I read that there are worms that can burrow it's way in, but the reason i thought this is a different situation is that it looks as if the hole that it enters is actually a hole that is part of the clam. It's as if it's hole is a tunnel, and you can see it running down the clam. In the picture, all you can see is the top of it's head and antennae, everything below is actually part of the clam, not the worm. Can someone help? Is this normal, is it a clam that should quickly be quarantined and then returned to the LFS? Thank you so much for your help!!! Tom. <Is a tubiculous snail... not to worry... not destructive, deleterious... And even very interesting... See the family name on the Net, WWM... Bob Fenner>

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