What the heck is this?

[der_kluge]

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j266/der_kluge/IMG_0246.jpg

Sorry for the picture quality. We had a hard time photographing it. We aren't normally accustomed to photographing things up so close.

Anyway, I bought this rock from Petco because it had some weird anemones on them. Got it home, and talked to the guy at my FLFS and he told me that what I had actually acquired as Aiptasia. Ok, so I deserve whatever punishment is coming to me.

So, as luck would have it, we have a small 20g secondary tank that I kind of play with. I grew brine shrimp in it, for example, and now I dumped that rock in there, where I'm occasionally feeding my aiptasia, and since that tank doesn't have a reef light on it, I'm expecting it to die, but it keeps surviving.

Anyway, a week ago, I picked up the rock so I could reposition it, and I noticed this 1.5 inch long "Centipede" crawling across the bottom of the rock.

Today, I turned the light on to feed my pet aiptasia, and these "Centipedes" start coming out of multiple holes in this rock. You can barely see them in the photograph. There are several of them - at least a half a dozen, which come out of holes. Some of them even wave around in the water. After about 5 minutes, they all recessed back into their holes, and I don't see any more.

The longest of them might not be more than 1.5 inches, but most are not more than about a half inch in length. Each has multiple "legs" along a long central worm-like body, but I see no visible feeding apparatus or anything like that.

What the heck is it?!

[blennymower]

They look like bristle worms. They're harmless and are good scavengers to have in a refugium/

[der_kluge]

I just did a GIS for "bristle worm" and you are exactly right.

Thank you.

I shall name my new tank "the pest tank". HAHA

I just need to stick a mantis shrimp in it now.

[ctenophors rule]

what yo have is a monster that haunts all but the most enlightend aquarists (so what does that make those who dislike?)

these surprisingly contraversial creatures are.......bristle worms.

bristle worms are beneficial when small, and with most species they continue to be beneficial to aquarist up to adult hood.

however some nice photos of people who were stupid enough to grab the parapodia of a scared worm, and the accounts of the pain and the coral eating fire worms have gien them an unnescecarily bad name.

so fear not, if you realy dont like them, take them out, you can syphon them if they are all the way out of burrow, you can bet an invert or fish to eat them. (dont get an arrrow crab, some people recomend them, but as they almost feed exclusively on bristle worms, and other annelids, they often starve in tanks smaller then 100+ (more like 200) gallons

please do your research and decide on your own, and dont allow the prejudices of other be yours.

[ctenophors rule]

ah you both beet me to the punch, i need to make shorter posts.