Bristleworm or Fireworm?

[christyj3]

I had a hermit crab that was taking a while to molt (he’s very large and older and was showing signs of molting), so I turned off one side of the tanks lights and covered that side with a blanket hoping that would help the little guy. The tank was set up that way for 24 hours and when he molted, I turned back on the lights to that side and removed the cover to find three of these in that side of the tank. We needed to redo our aquascape anyway, so we did that today as well to find at least 15-20 more of them underneath the rock. What type of worm is this? Do I need to be removing these? There's so many species! Can't tell if these are good or bad. I picked one up with my feeding tongs to check it out outside of the light in the tank and it's bright red.

 

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Bristle worm. Fire worms are much deeper red. These are considered harmless. Maybe not 100% and don’t handle them with bare hands, but they are great at eating detritus and uneaten food.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Bristle worm. Fire worms are much deeper red. These are considered harmless. Maybe not 100% and don’t handle them with bare hands, but they are great at eating detritus and uneaten food.

Agreed, you'll know it's a fireworm because your first thought will be "dang that's pretty" when you see the bright red and pristine white tufts. FWIW in my opinion most of the time you see reefers shouting "fireworm" it's when they're trying to justify their hatred of bristleworms in their tank. In my experience actual fireworms are exceedingly rare, and seeing spiny worms in your reef should almost never set off alarm bells.

 

[christyj3]

Bristle worm. Fire worms are much deeper red. These are considered harmless. Maybe not 100% and don’t handle them with bare hands, but they are great at eating detritus and uneaten food.

Thank youuu!!!

 

[christyj3]

Agreed, you'll know it's a fireworm because your first thought will be "dang that's pretty" when you see the bright red and pristine white tufts. FWIW in my opinion most of the time you see reefers shouting "fireworm" it's when they're trying to justify their hatred of bristleworms in their tank. In my experience actual fireworms are exceedingly rare, and seeing spiny worms in your reef should almost never set off alarm bells.

Thank you! This is very helpful!