Clear worms in live rock

Discussion in 'Live Rock' started by dancin_trancy, Nov 30, 2005.

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  1. dancin_trancy

    dancin_trancy Fire Worm

    Joined:
    Nov 16, 2005
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    167
    I apologize if there is a thread about these already, I tried to do a search for it and couldn't find anything that applied.

    Last night I got my first members of my cleaning crew (hermits & snails) wooohoo!!! I left the tank light off when I placed them in, and watched them for a while to make sure everyone was comfortable ;D

    While examining the tank, I noticed for the first time, these very small clear, smooth worm things poking out of one piece of my live rock...and they stretch themselves along the rock I'm assuming to eat what ever it is they eat, but the bottom portion stays in what ever hole the popped out of. They never detach from what I can see. And if I turned the overhead room light on they would disappear. One of the snails ended up on the rock & he seemed to be fine, but I cant seem to figure out what the heck these things are, and if they are harmful.

    I tried to search online, but only found info about bristle worms, and don't think thats what they are, tried to take a pic, but they are too small and go away when they light comes on.

    I bought a mix of cured and uncured rock from my LFS, they are on one of th larger pieces of cured rock, and only that one. Lately, that rock has started to have this mustard brown color on it, doesn't look like soft algae....kinda just covered the purple & green coralline that was originally on it...is this a bad sign also???

    Thanks so much for you help!
    Stef
     
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  3. amcarrig

    amcarrig Super Moderator

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    What you're probably seeing is vermetid snails or peanut worms. The rusty colored stuff on your rocks is probably diatoms.
     
  4. dancin_trancy

    dancin_trancy Fire Worm

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    Oh, okay, thanks....do you know if either of those, snails or worms are harmful? Thanks again for the response.
     
  5. amcarrig

    amcarrig Super Moderator

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    Neither of the critters that I listed are harmful :)
     
  6. coral reefer

    coral reefer Giant Squid

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    I have the same type of worm you are talking about. They are about 2" long and the width of a tooth pick roughly. I have another kind of worm or worms that look like spaghetti but are just a little thicker than a piece of hair. Who knows? They could write a 10 vol. set of books just on these weird little living thins in our sand beds and live rock!
     
  7. karlas

    karlas Fire Goby

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    ive seen a few small clear worms on my live rock they had a shiny reflective white dot on there head but never discovered the name of them they just seemed like another scavagener. prolly 99% of the worms in a tank are harmless and benificial to the tank
    all about worms
    http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/marinewormcare/

    coral reefer
    yours sounds like spaghetti worms
    http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/rs/index.php

    if your tanks healthy these guys will make tubes upon tubes in your sandbed and any leftover food that hits the bottom these guys will suck it in. you can look at your sandbed at an even level and all you see is the tenacles from these guys there pretty cool most are white but there are a few varietys of orange, pink, and sometimes red tenacles there a good thing