ID This worm please.

[Harris3005]

Hi everyone, I was just finishing feeding my mandarin dragonet some pellets in his corner of the tank behind my live rock and just as I was about to walk away this came out from under one of the rocks.

Could anyone please help me ID it and let me know if I should get it out of the tank? I don't think I've seen the other end of it but it's at least 10 inches long!

Any advice on this would be great!

 

[erinmegan85]

Looks like a bristleworm to me. They can stretch themselves out pretty darn far. I leave mine in my tank, but they aren't that big. If you do decide to take it out don't use your bare hands.

 

[Harris3005]

Thanks very much! Confirms what I thought! I really don't like them especially that size, I'll try and grab with tweezers tomorrow night when I'm feeding again and get it out of there!

 

[mik]

There are perks of having bristle worms in Aquarium they eat up detritus and other uneaten food or anything dead as long as they're not a bunch of them they're actually a benefit I have about 3 to 4 in my aquarium they're harmless more nocturnal but definitely if you do want to remove them don't use bare hands

 

[Javen]

Why should you not use bare hands

 

[Harris3005]

They have bristles that can hurt I believe. Seen it described as like handling fibre glass insulation with tiny Bristles that stay in your skin!

 

[erinmegan85]

Why should you not use bare hands

Like Harris just said the "bristles" from the bristle worm stick in your hand and it really hurts. That's their defense system.

 

[ffcrum]

Just my tw0, but if you see two or three there is alot more than that in your tank.