bristleworm inside my snail?

[Salo001]

Just got a snail from my lfs and as i was inspecting it something started to come out of it i flipped it and this thing came out. It kind of looks like a bristleworm but I'm not sure. What can I do? It looks like there's a lot more in there. Can I save this snail? I don't want to introduce this to my tank.

 

[Salo001]

Bump

 

[G Santana]

Definitely looks like a bristle worm has found a niche in the shell of your snail.
He will out grow it and move on.

I have tons of bristle worms in my tank, never had an issue with them.

 

[Salo001]

Definitely looks like a bristle worm has found a niche in the shell of your snail.
He will out grow it and move on.

I have tons of bristle worms in my tank, never had an issue with them.

So it would be okay if I add it to the tank then? It will not eat or kill anything?

 

[jabberwock]

That may be some type of louse. When in doubt, leave it out!

 

[Tired]

That's a weirdly lumpy snail. Got any pics from other angles?

 

[G Santana]

So it would be okay if I add it to the tank then? It will not eat or kill anything?

Bristle worms are in just about every tank out there, they are scavengers and eat whatever food is left over from your feeding.
The only things they will eat are the dead and dying.
Some people don't like them in their tank simply because of aesthetics.

I have no problem with them, if you overfeed their population can explode but they are easily caught and removed.

Don't fear the Bristle worms lol

 

[Tired]

Normal bristleworms are useful detritivores, but let's make sure that's a normal bristleworm. Looks like just the end of one, which would be a bit weird- did you pull on it in any way?

 

[jabberwock]

I agree about bristle worms, but I am not positive that is one.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

i have skin allergy to bristle worms now, after accidentally grabbing them when they are wrapped around the bottom of frag plugs. The bristles also stick my arms and hands, whenever I was working in the system, leaning on the rim or some rock, pulling algae out (where they may be hiding etc) I hate them. I have to scrape the bristles out, by scraping a dull knife perpendicular to the skin, under running water. Whenever I touch a bristle worm by accident, I can see the line of bristles embedded on my skin and treat accordingly.
BTW I still have the tips of a small sea urchin embedded in my thumb and index finger from 2 years ago. They have slowly been growing outwards as my skin peels off when its dry. Very annoying. Unlike a wood splinter, the spines are so sharp and fine, I believe I keep pushing it into my skin over time, whereas a wooden splinter gets soft and sheds with my skin.
Never again will a bristle worm enter my new setups.

 

[Tired]

I don't know of any more polite way to say "then don't touch them". You shouldn't be working bare-handed in your tank; there's much worse than bristleworms potentially on your rock. Reef tanks can have some nasty bacteria in them, so any sharp edges on the rocks could make you seriously ill. It sucks if the little blighters are up against the rim, that's a bit weird of them, but you shouldn't touch your rock without gloves.

 

[Salo001]

Normal bristleworms are useful detritivores, but let's make sure that's a normal bristleworm. Looks like just the end of one, which would be a bit weird- did you pull on it in any way?

I tried to see what it was and a piece of it came out there's a lot more on inside the snail. It is black and pinkish

 

[WheatToast]

I tried to see what it was and a piece of it came out there's a lot more on inside the snail. It is black and pinkish

Looks like a piece of a bristle worm that found a crevice in the snail's shell to hide in. The pink part is the worm's flesh while the black part is the worm's stomach contents.

 

[Salo001]

That's a weirdly lumpy snail. Got any pics from other angles?

Here's some extra pictures

 

[Tired]

Looks like a bristleworm found a crevice inside the snail's shell, and you might have broken the tail end of it off somehow. The rest of the stuff inside the shell is the rest of the worm.

Should be fine. Bristleworms are harmless (as long as you don't touch your rocks, which you shouldn't) and are pretty much inevitable in a reef.