Hairy Worm ID?

Ron99 · #1 03-24-2009, 04:09 PM

Firstly I have to say sorry as I can't get a picture. it comes out in the dark and retreats into the live rock when I put anything but a dim red light on it. The worm is translucent grey white and stretchy like a peanut worm but it has long "hair" along its body. These are fairly long; much more than what I have seen on bristle worms. I have seen it poke out of the rock quickly to scavenge some errant food at times so I figured it was a harmless scavenger. However, yesterday morning i noticed a few white spots on a frag of SPS in my tank and last night I saw the worm moving around on the frag.

So does anybody have any thoughts on SPS nipping hairy worms? I have tried searching on wetweb media etc. but can't find anything like it. I will try to get or set up some sort of trap.

Funky_Fish14 · #2 03-25-2009, 04:51 AM

Do the 'hairs' look like the same colour as the body, and are in a single line along the sides? And what does the head look like? Any chance it has 5 antanae?

Myka · #3 03-25-2009, 05:06 AM

Try googling "Eunicid". Might be what you have, or at least you could describe how it's not like a Eunicid...? There are many different species of Eunicid though...you may not find your exact one.

Funky_Fish14 · #4 03-25-2009, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myka

Try googling "Eunicid". Might be what you have, or at least you could describe how it's not like a Eunicid...? There are many different species of Eunicid though...you may not find your exact one.

Hehe - thats what I was wondering if it is...

Your post will probably yield better results though, haha.

Myka · #5 03-25-2009, 05:15 AM

I knew you were onto it.

Ron99 · #6 03-25-2009, 06:01 AM

The "hairs look body coloured and are very long. It's hard to tell colour as as I can only get a good look under red light. White light makes it retreat into the rock quickly. The body of the worm is maybe about 2mm in diameter and the hairs look to be about 5 to 6 mm long. They are much longer than the diameter of the worm itself.

I managed to finally find some better worm references on the internet and I' believe it is a syllidae worm which, as it turns out, will occasionally eat coral. I put a trap in tonight so hopefully I can catch it (if the bloody hermit crabs stop blocking the entrance trying to get at it).

Ron99 · #7 03-25-2009, 03:42 PM

Didn't manage to catch it last night. The hermit crabs were crawling all over the trap. I might need to pull the hermits out for a night. The worm looks looks very much like this one:

http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/Annelids/Syllid.htm

Drock169 · #8 03-25-2009, 07:43 PM

usually i just grab those ones with my fingers they can move pretty fast. if you can, pull out the coral they are on and then remove them

Ron99 · #9 03-25-2009, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drock169

usually i just grab those ones with my fingers they can move pretty fast. if you can, pull out the coral they are on and then remove them

I might if it comes all the way out of the rock. The problem is that only half comes out of the rock onto the frag and the other half is still in the rock. I'm worried about breaking it in half and just having it grow back.

Ron99 · #10 03-26-2009, 08:34 PM

Caught the bugger last night! Not the prettiest hitchhiker.