White Swimming Worm

[GreyG35]

Just spotted a worm swimming in my tank just before lights out (the actinics were still on). This thing is white, about 4 inches long, and has smallish bristles. It took off from a piece of rock, then swam sort of like an eel across the tank, and grabbed onto a rock with zoos on it, where it seems to be crawling around. Hopefully it's not eating the zoos.

Do bristleworms swim? Should I be worried about this?!?

Looked on Melev's ID site, and couldn't find anything remotely similar.

Thanks!

[Daddeo]

Bristleworm, they will swim when it's time for them to spawn.

[GreyG35]

Hmmm. I thought bristleworms were a reddish color? I've seen a couple of small ones in my 'fuge, but never anything this size. Do they come in different colors? Plus, it seemed thinner than the bristeworms I've seen...

[Daddeo]

The term "Bristle worm" is a blanket name commonly used for any worm with satae appendages. They come in many different shapes, colors, and sizes.

[LeslieH]

Despite the fact reefers that seem to recognize only 10 types of polychaetes (=bristle worms) there are about 10,000 known species and probably at least that many undescribed ones. They come in all colors & range in size from microscopic to about 15 feet long. Some of them swim to spawn.
Check out these 2 urls for pictures showing the great diversity of polychaetes & other small invertebrates:
http://www.nhm.org/research/annelida/index.html
http://www.nhm.org/guana/bvi-invt/home.htm

[Paintbug]

i believe what you saw was an epitoke. its how some bristleworms reproduce.

heres some info:
http://www.calacademy.org/research/izg/SFBay2K/wormswarm.htm

http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_net/0697/0697_2.html

[roons]

yep, epitoke, i saw tons of them when my tank first started, dont see them too much anymore

[LTJGAlex]

Yeah, seem 'em. They're fine. Bristleworms are not harmful, save for a few extremely rarely-seen species.

[GreyG35]

Thanks for the info! I was just sort of surprised to see it. Keep seeing / learning new things with this hobby...

[sean48183]

I had those in the first month of my tank and as soon as I added a couple fish they disappeared never to be seen again.