Spaghetti worm video

[kingfish62]

Thought you all would appreciate a video of a spaghetti worm tht reared it's ugly head after a water change.

 

Pay no attention to the movie audio in the background I was watching tv.

[sublunary]

Very cool! Wish I had one.

 

Excellent picture, btw.

[kingfish62]

Very cool! Wish I had one.

 

Excellent picture, btw.

 

If you still want some in the spring when temps are around 70 degrees I could try sending you some via priority mail.I am in massachusettes probably make it in two days.That is If you want to pay for shipping. the small flat rate box is like 5 bucks.

[kthehun89]

hair worm, not spaghetti, but very similar

 

awesome vid, i like the audio...matches it haha

[gulfsurfer101]

Nice vid, I found a pair of these things today during a wc also. kthehun is right though it is a a hair worm, similar to the spaghetti worm.

[kingfish62]

Nice vid, I found a pair of these things today during a wc also. kthehun is right though it is a a hair worm, similar to the spaghetti worm.

Hairworm? I did not know that

[Rybren]

Yup, definately a Cirratulid (hair) worm.

[sublunary]

Yup, definately a Cirratulid (hair) worm.

 

 

I always thought the hair worms were the ones that built tubes from sand and had 2 hair-like feeding tentacles?

 

 

I think it looks more like the spaghettit worm than the hair worm in this article: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/rs/index.php But I could be wrong.

 

 

And, kingfish, I might just take you up on that. I'll see what's going on when it gets warmer.

[Kweli]

I always thought the hair worms were the ones that built tubes from sand and had 2 hair-like feeding tentacles?

 

 

I think it looks more like the spaghettit worm than the hair worm in this article: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/rs/index.php But I could be wrong.

 

 

And, kingfish, I might just take you up on that. I'll see what's going on when it gets warmer.

 

Good lord that is ugly.. yet interesting..

 

Theres a 85% chance that my wife would freak out if she saw that in my tank....

and a 80% chance she would want me to remove it

[kingfish62]

Oooh, a little conrtoversy going on.

Hair or spaghetti ?

[yardboy]

Spaghetti. Look at the differentiated segments in the picture. Hair worm segments are more uniform.

[rbengal]

I'm going to have to say hairworm. It's hard to tell, but it looks like the "tentacles" (gills) are coming from many parts on the body. A spaghetti worm has all tentacles originating from the head. This worm also has, if you look closely, a couple of different looking tentacles which are brownish instead of yellow, which would be the feeding palps if you're comparing from the Reefkeeping Spaghetti vs. Hairworm article. Also if you read the article, the hairworms are free-living under the sediment instead of found in tubes when they are found in our aquariums.

I could be wrong though, I'm no expert in worms.

[Daleo]

haha jurassic park in the background

[texdobe]

Wow, creepy. Reminds me of something that would be implanted in you like in the Matrix.

 

 

Matrix Bug Scene

[yardboy]

While i still think it's a spaghetti worm, the tentacles are much smaller in diamter than I'd expect. (hair vs. pasta diameter), still they are very cool. The neat thing about the pic is that from my experience, the only time they crawl on the glass is when the population is high enough that they're looking for a new place to live, since most of the available sand space is taken.

[kingfish62]

haha jurassic park in the background

 

Right, you are!

 

 

While i still think it's a spaghetti worm, the tentacles are much smaller in diamter than I'd expect. (hair vs. pasta diameter), still they are very cool. The neat thing about the pic is that from my experience, the only time they crawl on the glass is when the population is high enough that they're looking for a new place to live, since most of the available sand space is taken.

 

At the time I did not have many, I think it was disrupted from the sand bed. It was quite shocking walking in and seeing on the glass like that. Before that I have never seen them out of the sand like that. Now I have hundreds in both tanks. Great cleaner, though, not a piece of food can fall on the sand that is out of reach of those tentacles.

 

For the record all the tenticles seem to come from one spot behind the head. So I am leaning towards a spaghetti worm.

[Natural71]

Hair worm (Cirratulid sp.). Spaghetti worms live in secreted tubes and their bodies are rarely seen. Hair worms live in sediment beds. This is a type of Hair worm for sure. Ugly but beneficial and harmless.

[lakshwadeep]

Don't get too caught up in the "hair vs. spaghetti" debate. That's why they are called common names, just like a puma is a cougar is a mountain lion. This is where scientific names (Cirratulid/Terebellid) really help to create more standardized names. This link describes both types.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/rs/index.php