Strange worm?

Tori · Jan 5, 2016

Hello all,

I found what appears to be a strange worm coming out of the rock on a zoa colony I picked up recently. Can someone please help ID it? I'm hoping it's a peanut worm since those seem to acceptable for your tank. I dipped the coral for fifteen minutes in revive but this guy and a baby bristle worm made it through un-phased. Unfortunately I loss two micro brittle stars during the dip

. Please take a look at the attached video and let me know if I can provide anymore info. Sorry for the poor lighting, the suspect would quickly retract when I tried to shine more light. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Tori

LaurensNL · Jan 5, 2016

It's hard to see what it actualy is. But I had once a worm looking a little bit like this one. I took it out just to be sure. But if it was inside the rock all the time for sure it wouldn't hurt your polyps, else he would've done it way earlier. And if your scared that it maybe would hurt your fish or other animals them just take it out.

A lot of people also say bristle worms are dangerous. Well I have one as thick as your small finger and around 40-50 cm long. In 3 years it never hurt anything or anyone. You just have to think logic. If your scared take it out if not leave him doing his worm thing.

Tori · Jan 5, 2016

Thanks for the reply. That's kind of what I was thinking too. He came in on that rock and the polyps don't seem to be hurt. I looked at again this morning and he was in the same place and there even seem to be polyps growing in that area. If no one replies that it's some horrible thing I'm not thinking of I'll probably leave him in. I was able to look at him without making him retract using a red light so I'll keep an eye on him and the polyps for the next couple of days. Thanks again!