Worm in newly established salt water tank

[MrsJones91011]

Hey there, I'm very new to saltwater tanks. The only reason I have one is because my daughters brought a bucket of shells home from the beach in July and as it turns out, 2 had hermit crabs in them 🤦🏼‍♀️ I rushed to petco once we realized and got a 10 gallon tank, some live sand, tank salt and lava rock. I honestly figured the would have died by now, but they've changed shells and molted once already so that's exciting. Tonight I noticed one one crab is out of its shell and hanging on the others shell. Idk if they are fighting or what, but I was taking a video to show my daughters in the morning. That's when I noticed this worm in a tiny shell👀 When I say it's a tiny shell, it's about the width of a pencil. It was also found at the beach, but was left on our counter for a few days before putting it in the tank. This worm, or should I say monster creature, had a very shrimp looking face/head, but the back end looked feathery. I made my 2 mind video into 2 gifs so I could hopefully figure out if it needs to come out or not. Please don't tank shame me, I'm only trying to give these hermits a decent life since they were removed from their home unintentionally! 🙈 Thanks in advance for any help! 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

I don’t know what either of those are, but welcome to Nano-Reef! I think it’s wonderful that you saved the lives of those hermits! 

[WormLicker]

Oh those are freaky 👀

I can't Id but thank you for caring about their lives. No animal is too small/unrelatable to cherish. 

[MrsJones91011]

34 minutes ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

I don’t know what either of those are, but welcome to Nano-Reef! I think it’s wonderful that you saved the lives of those hermits! 

They are honestly super fun to sit and watch! 🐚

[MrsJones91011]

30 minutes ago, WormLicker said:

Oh those are freaky 👀

I can't Id but thank you for caring about their lives. No animal is too small/unrelatable to cherish. 

I agree completely! Raising my kiddos with that same mentality, too! ❤️

[Merthynia]

Sorry I’m not sure what your friend is there. Is it attached to the shell or can it come and go?

[MrsJones91011]

2 hours ago, Merthynia said:

Sorry I’m not sure what your friend is there. Is it attached to the shell or can it come and go?

I honestly can't tell!

[filefishfinatic]

where was said beach? they might be a coldwater species 

[MrsJones91011]

8 minutes ago, filefishfinatic said:

where was said beach? they might be a coldwater species 

Pensacola Beach Florida. I checked this morning and still could see the feathery part coming out and retracting. I've Googled soooo many different things I'm ready to crack it open 😂 I now know it's an auger shell, but definitely not a snail living in it. 

[rough eye]

is there a filter (something to create flow), light, heater? do you have a way to measure the salinity and some distilled water to replace evaporated water? as for the little critter, i'd leave him and see what happens.

[MrsJones91011]

3 minutes ago, rough eye said:

is there a filter (something to create flow), light, heater? do you have a way to measure the salinity and some distilled water to replace evaporated water? as for the little critter, i'd leave him and see what happens.

I haven't been testing the water, but I do have a filter, light, and heater. I've been vacuuming any food particles our weekly, and replacing the water vacuumed and evaporated with fresh dechlorinated saltwater. I've been feeding shrimp pellets and algae wafers. 

[PeterU]

Evapourated water needs to be replaced by freshwater, not saltwater

[filefishfinatic]

2 hours ago, MrsJones91011 said:

Pensacola Beach Florida. I checked this morning and still could see the feathery part coming out and retracting. I've Googled soooo many different things I'm ready to crack it open 😂 I now know it's an auger shell, but definitely not a snail living in it. 

ok it isnt coldwate r so ur good if you can id try finding like a public aquarium to give the crabs to if you tsart having issues show pics and i can prolly id them 

[MrsJones91011]

4 minutes ago, PeterU said:

Evapourated water needs to be replaced by freshwater, not saltwater

Thank you! I guess testing the water would let me know when fresh saltwater is needed to be added? 

[filefishfinatic]

get a refractometer they are 20 dollars on amazon, dont worry about water changes for nutrient control and just feed what they eat. mabye put tank in window to light it better 

[MrsJones91011]

3 minutes ago, filefishfinatic said:

get a refractometer they are 20 dollars on amazon, dont worry about water changes for nutrient control and just feed what they eat. mabye put tank in window to light it better 

I just looked up the evaporated water reasoning and it totally makes sense! Thanks for bringing that to my attention! And I'll go order one of those now! 

[filefishfinatic]

make sure your salinity stays at 0.25 (on the left) get a digiten ato (45$ if you want to take the work out of topping up) it fills for evaporation and its the best thing ive ever bought 

[PeterU]

Obviously any extra equipment you purchase should depend on what you ultimately depends on your long term plans. If you only plan on using it for these crabs buy the cheapest hydrometer you can get and don't waste money on an auto top off.

Don't know where he got 0.25 from. You need a specific gravity of 1.026 which is about 35ppt

[MrsJones91011]

1 hour ago, PeterU said:

Obviously any extra equipment you purchase should depend on what you ultimately depends on your long term plans. If you only plan on using it for these crabs buy the cheapest hydrometer you can get and don't waste money on an auto top off.

Don't know where he got 0.25 from. You need a specific gravity of 1.026 which is about 35ppt

Thanks! I wasnt planning on the auto top off. I have 3 freshwater tanks so a 4th tank isn't much more work to manually top off.