Hairy Worm ID?

[Ron99]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Caught the bugger last night! Not the prettiest hitchhiker.

[Snaz]

[Ron99]

Already took a ride down the porcelain express!!