Getting live rock for free, but i saw a worm

I am getting 20-25 Lbs of live rock for free from my SIster, shutting down her nano tank. I went over there to kill off any aptasia with Joe Juice when i notice a worm like creature about an 1.5" long (rest was in the rock) with little thorns on it about 1/64" thin. The worms body is only a 1/32' thick and is white. I am geting the rock tonight and wondering what to do with this creature, i will try to remove it if i can find it again. I take it is a bristtle worm of some sort, is it rare to see it during the day? I could not find a match online for it.

 

that's probably a bristleworm. And I like them. You can get some kinds of fish that eat them, or an arrow crab. Or just let them be.
In my opinion they are one of the cool creatures in a reef tank
Just don't touch them, they sting.

 

ah, and it's not uncommen to see them during the day. I got a lot and find one pretty much every time I look at the tank. And that's only my 10 gallon tank ...

 

for future reference what fish eat them?

 

if it is a bristle worm you can try a snatch them befor you put the rock in your tank.
lay the rock on a wet piece of news paper and when it or they poke there heads out try to grab them with tweasers.
small and few are good for the reef, but quickly overcome a tank. i know i wouldnt want them in my tank.
they can get pretty large and ugly, i havent heard any fish that will eat them once they grow.
i have seen some that got up to 10''.
and all i have heard is trapping once they get large and can suck pretty bad.
go with hoodoos advice with and arrow crab. i believe they prefer the smaller worms.

 

This type of polycheat is a great detrivore. I like 'em in my tank. All but a few species, the kind that get 4' in length, of bristleworms are reef safe. Yours' is probably not that species.

 

craig once i caught up a lfs cleaning their sump and they discarded a 3 foot and around 1.5" diameter bristle worm and it looked nasty! scary even. Most bristleworms do not grow that big though. but then they had a sump made out of 1/4 their flooring (around 18 feet by two feet by 4 feet deep!)

 

Yikes!

 

[quote author=Craig_Manoukian link=board=ASAP;num=1099677255;start=0#5 date=11/05/04 at 13:51:34]This type of polycheat is a great detrivore.  I like 'em in my tank.  All but a few species, the kind that get 4' in length, of bristleworms are reef safe.  Yours' is probably not that species.[/quote]

Ditto, brislte worms are ecenelltnt detrivores, i have found monsters in our reef tank @ work (2' ++++) and have never seen any damage caused by them personally, there are a few vaireties that bore through coral but more than the majority are normal. Anyone that has a healthy tank with a good amount of LR has them whether they seem or not. The disruption you cause by removing them is very likley to be far more than they would cause on thier own (if they are causing any) from my experience.