Help ID worm

[rhorn67]

I would appreciate help ID'ing this what I believe is a worm of some sort. I noticed a few of them on an island rock I have when I was feeding tonight. They are extremely small and skinny and disappear into the small holes of the rock as soon as I move close to them with the tweezers. Sorry for the pic but they are so small so I had to zoom in pretty good so pic got a bit blurry.

Thanks in advance.

Ron

 

[JadeM]

where??? i can't see................ what size shape or colour are they if they are clear they are tube worms and should be ok tho they can be bad so keep an eye out might be bristle but with the quality of the photo I can only do so much

 

[rhorn67]

Here is another pic of two of them highlighted.

 

[human]

Can't really tell anything by the photo, do the worms look like they have tufts of spines along their sides? If so then they're probably just bristleworms, great clean up crew addition. Maybe try getting a better photo if possible.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Are you sure that's not little brittle starfish legs?

 

[rhorn67]

They're so darn small I have to zoom to get them which ruins the picture. I googled and found one that kind of resembles it based on the stripes called a spaghetti worm.

 

[rhorn67]

Are you sure that's not little brittle starfish legs?

One of them came all the way out of the hole it was in so I was able to see the beginning and end.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Someone else had the same thing. I seriously thought it was brittlestar legs. Lemme look to see if a certain genus lives in holes in the rock like that.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Do they move on the rock kind of like a caterpillar... or at least different than say, a bristleworm.

 

[rhorn67]

Can't really tell anything by the photo, do the worms look like they have tufts of spines along their sides? If so then they're probably just bristleworms, great clean up crew addition. Maybe try getting a better photo if possible.

I don't see anything that resembles spines but they are so small I may not be able to see them if they were there. The only identifying mark I can see are the stripes.

 

[rhorn67]

Do they move on the rock kind of like a caterpillar... or at least different than say, a bristleworm.

They seem to stay anchored to the hole they pop out of. Only once did I see one come all the way out then it popped back in the hole.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

It's a polychaete in the family Syllidae. I need to find that other member and apologize. I could have sworn it was brittlestar legs. Oops.

 

[rhorn67]

Is it ok in my tank or should I be concerned?

 

[Lionfish Lair]

You are going to love my definitive answer......

They are associated with mutualism, commensalism and parasitism. O.O

Yours are small and are in holes verses swarming a coral. Even if they are parasitic, it may just be on sponges, bryzoans and hydroids. Are they concentrated at the base/around any certain coral? Is any one coral or genus of coral doing particularly poorly?

I would do nothing at this point, if it were me. Nothing but observing. If it were on a rock that could be removed easily, I might in the future dip it in a hypersaline solution. Depends on what I see going on in the tank.

 

[rhorn67]

It is on an island rock that could be removed and dipped. I will keep an eye on things for now but am leaning toward a dip.

Thanks for all of your help much appreciated.