Worm ID Help

[yankeereefer]

Tanks been cycling for 6 days now - First signs of life showed up this morning. My GF noticed this "worm" in the sand bed - Any help determining what it is and if I should pull it out would be helpful.

It hasn't moved since the lights came on. It's about midway across the front of my 10g AGA -

Sorry 'bout the picture, I tried to adjust it the best I could to get he clarity and color for easier ID.

Thanks for looking and any help!

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/yankeereefer/DSC00918.jpg

[Sk8r]

Looks like a spaghetti worm. Harmless. It might turn out to be one of those, on the other hand, that throws out a fishing line for detritus above the substrate. Either is ok.

[romunov]

It's not a spaghetti worm, those have visible regions on their body. What you've got here is a hair worm (cirratulid).
Given enough food (targetfeeding perhaps? you don't want to mess up the entire tank like I did) they will reproduce at an extraordinary rate! I just love them, and so does copperband butterfly. :mad:

Read on:
Spaghetti and Hair Worms… What’s in a Name? (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/rs/index.htm)

[yankeereefer]

thanks for the ID's

romunov- I don't understand the comment about messing up the tank - From reading the article, it appears that these should be okay to leave in the tank - Will tank cleaners (crabs, etc) keep them under control?

My tank is (will be) a 10g nano reef so I doubt a copperband will work in my situation.

Thanks again

[LeslieH]

Actually it doesn't look like either a terebellid (= spagetti worm) or cirratulid (= hair worm) or even a polychaete. I can't see any sign of segmentation or tentacles. Yankeereefer, if you want to dig it out & take another picture of it in a dish (with water) we can probably give you a better id.