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submersible
07/02/2010, 05:05 PM
I was gazing into my tank last night with a flashlight, and after some time, a bunch of worms started swimming around the light. Some collected on the sand, and others continued to swim around. There was a mixture of pink/peach and blue/grey colored worms. What are they??

Thanks!


http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2050/p1040212a.jpg
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/9959/p1040216fr.jpg
http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9089/p1040215i.jpg
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/605/p1040207n.jpg
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/6682/worm02.jpg

LeslieH
07/02/2010, 05:33 PM
Those are epitokes of polychaetes in the family Syllidae. Epitokes are gamete delivery systems - a way of getting the eggs & sperm together up in the water. Some polys transform their whole bodies in order to swim & spawn while others modify just the rear portion which detaches & swims away. I can't really tell from the photos but it seems as if these are modified posteriors. The skin is transparent; the colors are the eggs and sperm.

Syllids are harmless and extremely common in tanks - just unseen for the most part because they are small & hidden away.