Elastic worm in live rock

applejuicewhopper · Apr 5, 2019

Hello everyone!

What is this worm? It's smooth, pale brown, and sometimes appears to "sniff" the water. By sniff, I mean it flares it's mouth while waving back and forth. I see it picking at the rock around it's immediate area.

I've only seen it stretch a little more than an inch from it's cave and it has an elastic look the further it stretches. To be honest it looks more like a tentacle/proboscis than a worm! Like something out of "the mist" [emoji23] any ideas?

Thanks!

Hemmdog · Apr 5, 2019

Well that is odd.. lol. No idea but I’m curious as well!

Also welcome to reef2reef!!

applejuicewhopper · Apr 5, 2019

Hemmdog said:
Well that is odd.. lol. No idea but I’m curious as well!

Also welcome to reef2reef!!

Thanks! Glad to be here!

Yeah I've been scouring previous threads to see if anything matches but can't find anything similar. Not too worried though as this guy freaks out and retreats when amphipods come to investigate! [emoji23]

reef lover · Apr 5, 2019

Welcome to r2r! Peanut worm.

Jeight · Apr 5, 2019

Welcome to R2R!!! If you cannot get answers here then they probably do not exist

everyone here is so helpful.

chowwil · Apr 5, 2019

Peanut worm, I freaked out to when I saw for the first time in my tank. Harmless

AltitudeAquarium · Apr 5, 2019

applejuicewhopper said:
Hello everyone!

What is this worm? It's smooth, pale brown, and sometimes appears to "sniff" the water. By sniff, I mean it flares it's mouth while waving back and forth. I see it picking at the rock around it's immediate area.

I've only seen it stretch a little more than an inch from it's cave and it has an elastic look the further it stretches. To be honest it looks more like a tentacle/proboscis than a worm! Like something out of "the mist" [emoji23] any ideas?

Thanks!

I have been seeing these hair-like things on the rocks in the aquarium. I thought these were byropsis or GHA. When I was feeding my fish, I saw these hairs working in unison to grab some food. It was so cool to watch. I want to upload a video like you did. How can I upload a video?

AltitudeAquarium · Apr 5, 2019

AltitudeAquarium said:
I have been seeing these hair-like things on the rocks in the aquarium. I thought these were byropsis or GHA. When I was feeding my fish, I saw these hairs working in unison to grab some food. It was so cool to watch. I want to upload a video like you did. How can I upload a video?

Here is a photo. The video would be better.

PicassoDan · Apr 5, 2019

those yellow guys are spaghetti worms - also a good thing to have in your tank : )
It could actually be one worm - thay have a body that is often hidden, and multiple tentacles:

Back in the days of deep sand beds, they could often be found living in the sand.

I'm not sure that the OP's worm is a peanut worm... I have one like that, but it's even thinner, like fishing line. If you touch it, it retracts - not sure what it is. I think peanut worms are usually more fat.

reef lover · Apr 5, 2019

Def a peanut worm..what your describing sounds like a spionid worm.

sorry for double pic...

applejuicewhopper · Apr 5, 2019

AltitudeAquarium said:
I have been seeing these hair-like things on the rocks in the aquarium. I thought these were byropsis or GHA. When I was feeding my fish, I saw these hairs working in unison to grab some food. It was so cool to watch. I want to upload a video like you did. How can I upload a video?

My phone has the ability to take a video and covert it into a .gif file, only six seconds long though. Yours might be able to do it. Samsung note 9. Hope that helps!

applejuicewhopper · Apr 5, 2019

reef lover said:
Welcome to r2r! Peanut worm.

Thank you!

chowwil said:
Peanut worm, I freaked out to when I saw for the first time in my tank. Harmless

Thank you!

Jeight said:
Welcome to R2R!!! If you cannot get answers here then they probably do not exist everyone here is so helpful.

Thank you!

rocketman82 · Apr 9, 2019

Hi can anyone tell me what this is. It only comes out when the lights are off. If touched it goes into the rock fast.

Stupidkitty84 · Nov 6, 2022

applejuicewhopper said:
Hello everyone!

What is this worm? It's smooth, pale brown, and sometimes appears to "sniff" the water. By sniff, I mean it flares it's mouth while waving back and forth. I see it picking at the rock around it's immediate area.

I've only seen it stretch a little more than an inch from it's cave and it has an elastic look the further it stretches. To be honest it looks more like a tentacle/proboscis than a worm! Like something out of "the mist" [emoji23] any ideas?

Thanks!

I just found these worms in my very established (15 yrs old) tank, living side by side with bristleworms. Freaked me out. Got over the freakishness of the BW over a decade ago but finding these guys recently was a shocker. These worms have a translucent white body but a opaque white, round head and are perfectly smooth.