Worm ID.....

So I keep going down to check and make sure that the shrimp don't decide they like to eat clam.....and I see a polycheate worm coming out from under the rocks and trying to go under one of the new chalices, but it keeps getting scared away. Is this a worm to worry about?

 

It's been a long time since I've seen somethign new..... OMG! That is awesomeness. I have a weird feeling it's not a good thing because the front of it looks like my eunice worm. I'll go look in my books.

I will pay you 10 bucks for that so I can photograph it.

 

I see it has lots of millipede-like legs too. I looks like a bad guy though I don't know what kind.

 

I was pretty sure it was a eunicid worm too but I've never seen one with striped tentacles. I can also only count 3 tentacles (instead of 5) but that could just be the camera angle.

PM 3Reef member LeslieH. She's an expert on worms for the California Polychaetous Annelids Collection of the Natural History Museum.

EDIT: BTW, if it is a Eunice, not only is it a coral eater, once it gets bigger it will go after fish too.

 

It's at least 4 inches long - that's the farthest it extended out of its burrow in the rock/substrate before it went back in, and I've been watching it since I posted. It isn't picking at the chalice itself, just going under it and picking around. I only saw 3 tentacles on the head, so it's not the camera angle or anything.

 

If Leslie is on this site... definitely flag this thread for her.

 

I sent a PM. I just hope that it won't be something that'll become a problem overnight, now that a coral is right near its burrow. I have a duster that's right near it for the past few days, and has been ok, so I don't know if that's any indication.

 

If you see it, yank it out until you get a positive ID. That's a sound action whenever you see something odd you didn't add and you don't recognize. You may never get a second chance to remove said bad hitchhiker.

 

I can't even open the tank lid without it freaking out; I doubt I'll be able to catch it all too easily. What methods would you recommend? I'm good with a pair of needlenoses, but I'll likely double this potential problem with those.

 

Depends on what it is, I guess. My Eunice likes any food I was feeding to the preds and I feed it from a stick now. If we find out what it likes to eat, I would use that as bait.