ID - Volcano from creature in sand bed?

[chwattscaw]

Hello,

I have a dsb, and have been seeing something that I am curious about.

There are occassional 'mounds' of sand like a small volcano, about 1 - 2 inches around, rising about 1/2 inch from the sand bed floor. From time to time, in the middle a plume of sand is spiraled out in a long ribbon at the center. it of course is clean and white sand, about 1/8 inch, maybe less in diameter. This continues for some time, days, then it will subside, and the object will move.

I assume it is some type of sand critter, but am curious what it might be. I never see it. I can see lot's of worms, and other creatures at the glass, and I see worms at night.

Looking forward to understanding what this might be?

[naruto_kun]

I get those too :D I have seen many of them, they look like earthworms, but more opaque. I have no clue what they are called though. They eat the sand pepples and out from there rectum is finer whiter sand. Nasty but interesting.

-Steve

[iCam]

Hey. Sounds to me like spaghetti worms. These are considered good for sandbeds :)

Here's an article that includes spaghetti worms:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/rs/

[rshimek]

Hi,

Definitely not spaghetti worms.

Definitely some other worm or worm-like creature. :D There are several types of highly beneficial deposit-feeding animals that do this. They all burrow through the sediment eating organic material (mostly bacteria or algae that lives on/in the sediments). There are many types of annelid worms and sea cucumbers that do this. They are all highly desireable to have in a sand bed. Lucky you!!! :D

[chwattscaw]

Thanks for the update, I did read the thread the other gentleman suggested, and i just could not id this as a spaghetti worm from my visual observation.

Again, this mroning the calcerous tub is a bit larger on one of the mounds (longer, almost a quarter inch, but about the same diameter 1/8 or less). I have alot of them, along wiht other worms that appear to live in the rocks, and extend in the night time down to the sand bed. As soon as I turn on the room lights in the morning they release from the sand bed and retract back into the rocks.

FYI this is how I created this sand bed. For the most part (probably 70%, oolitic sugarsize sand). I seeded it with a few bags of aragalive sugar size, and then threw in several pounds of 'bottom crude' sold by Premium Aquatics. That was some nasty stuff. I purchased uncurred rock also...so I am sure some stuff came in on that as well.

This bed is about 5 months now.....and maturing nicely.......I would say average depth 4 inches with a few shallow spots

I also use lots of nassarius snails, cerith snails, and cucumbers.

The refugium is about the same, but with mostly Kent BioMedia as the base. More like mud.......