Aurortpa Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 First time seeing a literally hair thin—if not even thinner than hair—red worm? I’ve encountered really thin translucent, white, and dark ones but not this bright of a red one. Blasto it’s touching seems undisturbed by it. Tiny spaghetti worm maybe?? Forgive the tailspot, he’s often a photo bomber now. Quote Link to comment
RayWhisperer Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 It’s not a spaghetti worm. Most people call them hair worms, but it’s not a hair worm, either. My best guess (since there are probably a million types of worms) is it’s a ribbon worm. That may not be your case, but they are pretty common hitchhikers. Without being able to see the body in detail (think microscope) that’s about as good as it gets. Ribbon worms are primarily predatory, however, the ones we usually see in the rock and sand bed can’t tackle anything bigger than maybe a fresh hatched rotifer, and do scavenge. So, don’t worry about them. Interesting tidbit about ribbon worms. They basically wrap their “mouth” around their prey and stab it to death. Happy nightmares! Quote Link to comment
Aurortpa Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 Stab them with their mouths?! This somehow surprises me yet doesn’t lol. This blasto is freshly fragged, my LFS cut it for me on request. Probably trying to munch on it but like you said, the damage is probably completely negligible and the frag is definitely outpacing it in growth anyways. I would have thought it was a cat hair if it it wasn’t so red. Quote Link to comment
RayWhisperer Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/14-fun-facts-about-marine-ribbon-worms-3156969/ 1 Quote Link to comment
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