Some sort of worm? ID please

[SlasherZ]

Hi guys, I've got some sort of worm I found last night and I'm not sure what it is. Pretty spooky looking tbh... Pretty sure it's some sort of filter feeder though?

My only inkling of a maybe clue is that my feather duster seems to have left it's tube. However I can't find any good pics of a tubeless feather duster to confirm. Any help would be great!

 

[MoshJosh]

But for real I think you are right, the "face" leads me to believe it is some form of filter feeder.

(and NO the Alaskan Bull Worm joke will NEVER get old!)

 

[SlasherZ]

 

[Brit’s Fish]

It’s definitely your feather duster that left his tube. If you plant him back in the sand somewhere towards the bottom, he should start to grow a new tube as long as no one is bothering him. It looks like he’s regrowing his feathers right now too.

 

[shakacuz]

It’s definitely your feather duster that left his tube. If you plant him back in the sand somewhere towards the bottom, he should start to grow a new tube as long as no one is bothering him. It looks like he’s regrowing his feathers right now too.

+1 to this. it happened to my koko/coco worm

 

[SlasherZ]

Sweet, thanks for the help guys.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, that worm is harmless/beneficial - some feather dusters and some spaghetti worms can look similar to this; given that your feather duster is missing, that would be my guess.

If you want to see pics of other specimens, you can do an image search for their morphology - for example, if you do a Google Images search for "Sabellida morphology" you'll get a bunch of different results of feather duster worm specimens outside of their tubes from various scholarly sources.

 

[SlasherZ]

Yeah, that worm is harmless/beneficial - some feather dusters and some spaghetti worms can look similar to this; given that your feather duster is missing, that would be my guess.

If you want to see pics of other specimens, you can do an image search for their morphology - for example, if you do a Google Images search for "Sabellida morphology" you'll get a bunch of different results of feather duster worm specimens outside of their tubes from various scholarly sources.

Awesome! That's a tip that'll come in handy next time I'm having a hard time getting good results, I'm sure. Thanks!