Can You ID this creepy worm?

[dmorel]

This thing crawled out of the sand and onto the glass.
There seem to be several of them in there.
I assume it's some kind of bristle worm, I have lots of the fire worms in my tank, but this one is nastly looking!


First shot as it is coming out of the sand, next fully extended on the glass.
Unfortunately it's right on the glass in front of the LT, so I don't get to clean there making it kind of hard to see...

thanks,
-dm


http://morelweb.com/URS/creepy/1.jpg
http://morelweb.com/URS/creepy/3.jpg

[Chucker]

Spaghetti worm- same critter Jamie posted a pic of not too long ago. They spend most of their time buried in sand or with their bodies in rock. Great detritivores. :)

[dmorel]

I was just looking at that same pic :)

That was where we had our money too, but I have never seen anything but the little tenticles sticking out of the sand. I have hundreds in my tank and this is the first time I have seen the body. A new adventure everyday

[Gary Majchrzak]

'Spaghetti' {or terrebellid } worms are the absolute FAVORITE food of my copperband butterflyfish.People PAY to aquire these worms.Their presence helps to make 'southdown' sand 'LIVE' sand with the passage of time. Great pic.

[mirski57]

That is one creepy looking critter......I didn't realize there was actaully a worm connected to those thin little spaghetti pieces coming out of my substrate.

cool.

[dmorel]

Originally posted by Gary Majchrzak
'Spaghetti' {or terrebellid } worms are the absolute FAVORITE food of my copperband butterflyfish.People PAY to aquire these worms.Their presence helps to make 'southdown' sand 'LIVE' sand with the passage of time. Great pic.

At last I might have something with some trade value!

I had done a little reading about spaghetti worms a few months ago when someone had told me that's what the little orange/brown things coming out of the sand were, but interestingly I didn't come across any pictures of the whole worm out.
I wonder what got this guy out, it was back under the sand within 15 minutes...

If we are doing that cup of sand thing at the meet I will try and make sure a few are in my cup.

-dm

[ReeferMac]

I've got literally thousands of 'em Dave. They are great. Prolly got bunch from the algae. They like to hang out in there for some reason. Mine go walkabout on the glass all the time too. It's not uncommon for me to find 2-3 up there on any given day when I get home from work. I speculate they're trying to spread out from each other. But since it's hard to wade through the sand, they just find a piece of rock, or take a stroll along the glass. Settle in a clump of sand a few inches down.

- Mac