ceruleanspiral
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2019
- Messages
- 842
- Reaction score
- 923
- Location
- Tampa Bay
- What state or country do you live in
- Florida
So I have 2 (at least) worms in my tank that are very pink like some earthworms. They look smooth, not bristly. I mean, I'm not going to try to pet it or anything, but that's what it looks like. They are thin and ridiculously long. I tried to get a picture but only got like a piece of one in the photo. They were super fast zipping back into the sand and did not like the light. The other one had already zipped back under the rock by the time I got my phone but this one was really digging the dead snail.
I only saw them because today was the first day of school so I was up 4 hours before the tank lights turn on. I turned the light in the office on (way earlier than I normally do) and saw TWO of the things eating the snail with 3 crabs that were chowing down. One was coming from under a rock that was about 6 inches away from the snail- so it is longer than that. The photo I got is of the other one that was coming out of the sand. I got a pic of about 3-4 inches of it but it was easily twice that and in the sand. So these are 6+ inch worms, I would not be surprised if they were in the 8-10 inch range.
I feel like a 2-3 inch bristle worm would be fine, but these are so freakin' long. And they don't look like pictures of bristle worms. Are they a risk to my fish and critters? I recently cut down on feeding because of GHA. I had a feather duster worm die a few days ago out of nowhere and I'm still not sure if my cleaner shrimp just died today or molted (I hate that, lol). I usually check my rocks with a flashlight at night before bed (around 2-3 hours after lights go off)- for this reason! I have never seen them before. I did see a worm like that, that was around 2 inches long when I first got my live rock in January. I figured it would die during cycling. Apparently not.
I only saw them because today was the first day of school so I was up 4 hours before the tank lights turn on. I turned the light in the office on (way earlier than I normally do) and saw TWO of the things eating the snail with 3 crabs that were chowing down. One was coming from under a rock that was about 6 inches away from the snail- so it is longer than that. The photo I got is of the other one that was coming out of the sand. I got a pic of about 3-4 inches of it but it was easily twice that and in the sand. So these are 6+ inch worms, I would not be surprised if they were in the 8-10 inch range.
I feel like a 2-3 inch bristle worm would be fine, but these are so freakin' long. And they don't look like pictures of bristle worms. Are they a risk to my fish and critters? I recently cut down on feeding because of GHA. I had a feather duster worm die a few days ago out of nowhere and I'm still not sure if my cleaner shrimp just died today or molted (I hate that, lol). I usually check my rocks with a flashlight at night before bed (around 2-3 hours after lights go off)- for this reason! I have never seen them before. I did see a worm like that, that was around 2 inches long when I first got my live rock in January. I figured it would die during cycling. Apparently not.
