very fine hair like worms that come out of the sand in a cluster?

[salth2owannabe]

I've got a lot of clusters of very fine hair like worms that are mainly in the sand bed. They appear to string out and attach themselves to dead things that fall to the bottom. What are these things? How and should I get rid of them? Thanks much.

[jamest0o0]

bristle worms? they are good

[kevin2000]

A picture would help -- but odds are your just seeing beneficial critters that live in your sand bed that should be considered part of your clean up crew.

[salth2owannabe]

These things are so small you wouldn't be able to see them in a photo. They are litterally fine as a hair and extend about an inch maybe an 1 1/2 ".

[BLKTANG]

Not bristle worms,but maybe spaghetti worms good detritus eaters no need to rid of them.

[demonsp]

Look here for ID's but im curious whats all the dead stuff falling to the bottom?


http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/hitchhikers.html

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/

[salth2owannabe]

I shouldn't say dead stuff, because they will attach to almost anything, the live critters just crawl away. I did have a turbo snail die the other day and they tried to work it over.

[Agu]

If they're in groups of several fine threads coming out of the substrate from the same general area they're spaghetti worms. What you're seeing are the feeding tentacles of a single worm. The actual worm stays under the substrate.

If they're single threads they're typically a variety of other worms.

In any case they're a sign of a healthy and diverse biotope. Be glad you have them as part of your volunteer clean up crew.

[bertoni]

Sounds like cirratulid or terebellid worms to me. They are good to have.

[Tayler]

ya i'd say its a terebellid

[lloydkeller]

they wont cause a problem mine come out at night looks like fine hair