Fire worm or bristle worm?

[BamaCoastPyrat]

I am pretty sure this is a fire worm. Can y'all confirm?

 

[BlueFynn_Ian]

Looks like a pretty standard bristle worm to me, the two fireworms I came across were more vibrantly red and had rounder/bigger heads like a bulldog.

 

[reeferJMX]

I believe that's a bristle worm too. I just discovered one as well, always appearing on the same spot on my liverock.

 

[steveschuerger]

I’d say bristleworm. Same color as the ones I’ve had.

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

I’d say bristleworm. Same color as the ones I’ve had.

@reeferJMX @BlueFynn_Ian I thought the red hairs at the bottom of each tuff of bristles indicated it was a fire worm. They are aggressive and come out hunting food every time I feed.

But of course I hope y'all are right and they are just big bristle worms.

 

[Rham1281]

I am pretty sure this is a fire worm. Can y'all confirm?

Looks like a normal bristle worm.

 

[BlueFynn_Ian]

My lady friend says I’m terrible with colors so I could be wrong, i tend to look more at head shape rather than coloring. But there’s thousands of variations of bristle worms that are all ever so slightly different.

The fire worms I’ve dealt with with vibrantly red that I could see from a few feet away and had massive rounded heads when I pulled them out.

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

My lady friend says I’m terrible with colors so I could be wrong, i tend to look more at head shape rather than coloring. But there’s thousands of variations of bristle worms that are all ever so slightly different.

The fire worms I’ve dealt with with vibrantly red that I could see from a few feet away and had massive rounded heads when I pulled them out.

It's true color is a vibrant pink. This thing is over 12" long, so even if it is definitely a bristle worm, it is too large for my 40g tank. I'll take some better pictures if I ever get it out.

 

[steveschuerger]

It's true color is a vibrant pink. This thing is over 12" long, so even if it is definitely a bristle worm, it is too large for my 40g tank. I'll take some better pictures if I ever get it out.

I had 3 good sized ones in the 30 that had, 2 of which were about 8-10 inches long. Ugly as sin, but never bothered anything and definitely helped clean up.

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

I had 3 good sized ones in the 30 that had, 2 of which were about 8-10 inches long. Ugly as sin, but never bothered anything and definitely helped clean up.

Yeah, I would leave them alone but I think they are bothering the mushroom. It was doing really well until they moved into the coral skeleton it resides on, now it never fully opens.

 

[Gtinnel]

@reeferJMX @BlueFynn_Ian I thought the red hairs at the bottom of each tuff of bristles indicated it was a fire worm. They are aggressive and come out hunting food every time I feed.

But of course I hope y'all are right and they are just big bristle worms.

The most reliable way to identify a bearded fireworm is to look for the distinctive caruncle on the top of its head. It will be a red feathery looking appendage. Its carauncle is such an obvious feature of the bearded fireworm that it’s actually part of its scientific name (Hermodice carunculata)
The red at the base of the bristles alone is not a good way to ID a bearded fireworm.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

I am pretty sure this is a fire worm. Can y'all confirm?

Here's a pic of the huge fireworm I had to evict from my tank... it was over 10" long when I got it out. Your worm doesn't look quite as "fluffy" and the tufts aren't as red... BUT - mine looked like a typical pinkish bristleworm for a long time before it grew into that.

 

[bnord]

Here's a pic of the huge fireworm I had to evict from my tank... it was over 10" long when I got it out. Your worm doesn't look quite as "fluffy" and the tufts aren't as red... BUT - mine looked like a typical pinkish bristleworm for a long time before it grew into that.

Thank you and Gtinnel for the great pics - does anyone have experience with fire worm "predation" on acros?

I had a small colony that was growing well and one morning had uncharacteristic denuding of most of the tips which io had written off as poor response to some change in the chemistry - but all else in the tank is fine and wanted to rule out the stories I have read about fire worms

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

Thank you and Gtinnel for the great pics - does anyone have experience with fire worm "predation" on acros?

I had a small colony that was growing well and one morning had uncharacteristic denuding of most of the tips which io had written off as poor response to some change in the chemistry - but all else in the tank is fine and wanted to rule out the stories I have read about fire worms

I don't know about acros as I don't have any SPS... but, that fireworm did kill an entire rock covered in some nice discosoma shrooms (ironically, the rock it hitchhiked in on). I blamed it on my lemonpeel angel at the time... but after doing some reading a few months later on fireworms, realized it was actually most likely the worm. Once it got to the size it was later on, it would come out and wind itself around the rock my BTA was on - it irritated the nem constantly, causing it to move up to the top of the rock and settle right into the center of a big colony of xenia... ugh. It's STILL surrounded by the xenia and never fully opens since, but nems gonna do what nems gonna do I suppose lol.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I am pretty sure this is a fire worm. Can y'all confirm?

Those are the ones I remove (I like the regular skinny bristleworms...), whether they're actually fire worms or not, they seem more aggressive and look very similar to the coral-eating variety.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

Those are the ones I remove (I like the regular skinny bristleworms...), whether they're actually fire worms or not, they seem more aggressive and look very similar to the coral-eating variety.

I WISH I had the regular skinny harmless bristleworms, lol! I'm not willing to find out if the ones I have are 100% fireworms... but the little ones I saw when I yanked the monster one from my tank are now getting bigger and bolder and I'm like, here we go again - those nasties gotta go! Saw one come out last night that's probably close to 5" long... watched my big Babylon snail roll right up next to it and it didn't even move away. They also come out in the daytime and it creeps me out lol.

 

[bnord]

Those are the ones I remove (I like the regular skinny bristleworms...), whether they're actually fire worms or not, they seem more aggressive and look very similar to the coral-eating variety.

I would rather have lots'o little ones doing their job in keeping the tank clean.

If they are too big for the melanurus to punish it for exposing itself, I get the snake tongs out...

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I WISH I had the regular skinny harmless bristleworms, lol! I'm not willing to find out if the ones I have are 100% fireworms... but the little ones I saw when I yanked the monster one from my tank are now getting bigger and bolder and I'm like, here we go again - those nasties gotta go! Saw one come out last night that's probably close to 5" long... watched my big Babylon snail roll right up next to it and it didn't even move away. They also come out in the daytime and it creeps me out lol.

Ditto! Luckily I've only seen the creepy ones in some rock I had in a temporary tank... I have never been bothered by "regular" bristleworms, but those guys seemed evil! Lol

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I would rather have lots'o little ones doing their job in keeping the tank clean.

If they are too big for the melanurus to punish it for exposing itself, I get the snake tongs out...

There are (obviously) many different types of bristle worms, and all I've had in my display are the ones that basically look like earthworms crossed with centipedes. The bright red, flat ones wider than my finger creep me out!

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

There are (obviously) many different types of bristle worms, and all I've had in my display are the ones that basically look like earthworms crossed with centipedes. The bright red, flat ones wider than my finger creep me out!

This! The one I had that got ginormous was like something out of a nightmare, lol.