Now that's a worm!!!

[Aquattro]

Darren, Ron has described this worm here.
http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...threadid=35766

They do indeed have mouths and "teeth". I witnessed mine kill and eat two snails in one night by finding them in the sand and dragging them to it's hole in the rock. Three nights later it got another. They also attack clams.

[Aquattro]

He also describes them further as follows.

"Another type of worm that causes problems can be very large; I have seen individuals about 40 cm long and bright orange. These are thin compared to bristle worms, and although they do have small bristles along the sides, these are generally not apparent. These worms, Oenone fulgida, prey on snails and clams. They suffocate snails with a viscid mucus, and then eat the body, and apparently can bore into clams, such as Tridacna species and eat them as well (Delbeek and Sprung 1994). They live in holes in rocks and emerge to feed, but generally keep their posterior end in their home hole. They are nocturnal and feed in total darkness. When startled by a light they can retract back into their den with extreme rapidity. About the only way they can be removed from a system is by removing their piece of rock and manually pulling the worm out if it possible."(rshimek)

[DJ88]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

These are thin compared to bristle worms, and although they do have small bristles along the sides, these are generally not apparent.

This is not the worm I am talking about or explaining to BCReefer that are good for our system. Obviously you have a different species of worm.

The worm I posted a pic of and the ones I have added have very very visible bristles. What you are mentioning is a different worm entirely. There are thousands of types of worms. The ones we predominantly get in our systems are carrion feeders. The one I have shown here and the ones I have been talking about, are those worms. There are other types of worms that will prey on things such as snails and even fish. You can't call all worms that may appear, bristle worms. I have read about and made sure that the ones I am keeping and looking to add to my tank are bristle worms. The type that DONOT kill anything. They are scavangers. They do not have jaws and are only capable of removing decaying flesh.

If you have something different get it ID'd and describe it as such. If it does have jaws then it is obviously not the same worm that is beneficial to our systems. And not the same one I am speaking about.

Too often people call all worms "bristle worms" which leads to others asking are they good or bad.

[ 21 December 2001: Message edited by: DJ88 ]