# ID this creepy (and highly predatory) polychaete?



## Niffarious (Oct 2, 2011)

I've posted this video in a few places and have never been able to get an ID.

These worms absolutely decimated a tank of mine.

What they do:

They move like greased lightening. They build slime tubes they shoot through, and engulf their prey in the same slime and then eat it. And they work FAST. They seem to breed fast, and by the time I noticed them it was basically game over. Nothing ate them, they ate everything but most coral.

You're looking at a video of the reason I tore down my last marine tank.

Carnivorous polychaete worm - YouTube

Carnivorous polychaete worm - YouTube

I'd still love an ID...just to know what the heck I was dealing with.


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## theinnkeeper (Sep 12, 2011)

What the hell, how did he even get in the tank to begin with? That things nasty


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## chiefwonton (Sep 19, 2010)

there goes my dinner


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## Niffarious (Oct 2, 2011)

theinnkeeper said:


> What the hell, how did he even get in the tank to begin with? That things nasty


No idea where the initial infestation originated from. It seemed like they turned up overnight, but I hadn't introduced anything new (fish, liverock or corals) in ages at that point. So they were probably there undetected for quite a while. I suspect on some liverock at some point as either eggs or larvae...


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## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

I believe that is some kind of sandworm or clamworm... Nasty buggers those things are; they have teeth and they bite, and boy does it hurt... They seem to make very good fishing bait though. I'd say that, if you have time, bring a few to the marine biologists at the vancouver aquarium or UBC and see if they could ID it for you.


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## STANKYfish (Apr 21, 2011)

Kinda looks like a bristle worm....anyway i just pulled one of these out of my 14g biocube  You have to have a firm hold and pull fast cause they can break off and split. Thats why i took the same worm out on two different occasions  I did not find that they caused any damage to corals or livestock but more as a cleaner of unwanted food that was on the sand


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## Niffarious (Oct 2, 2011)

@BelieveInBlue - I thought the same, but the head is very different and they appear to be more thin in body structure. Sadly I no longer have the aquarium that was infested (tore it down) and I did not preserve any specimens. Maybe I can get a partial ID from the videos if I contact them though.

@STANKYfish - they are polychaete worms but not bristle worms. There are no bristles, and they are not the harmless scavengers most of us are used to.


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## gmachine19 (Apr 21, 2010)

fireworm is what comes immediately to mind.


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## reeferious (Apr 30, 2010)

*unidentified bristle worms*

these are just your regular bristle worms though i don't have exact specie name for them. they're attracted to anything that's in a weakened health state in your tank. A++++ to them for keeping your tank healthy.


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## Niffarious (Oct 2, 2011)

Hey guys - maybe the video is not clear enough, but these are NOT bristle worms/fire worms. They do not have bristles. They have a distinct, flattened head with visible eyes, secrete what appears to be a poisonous mucous, and each segment has legs instead of bristles. And as mentioned, they are very highly predatory.

I'm very familiar with standard bristle worms, which are welcome in my aquarium. In contrast, I watched these particular worms attack, kill, and eat highly mobile hermit crabs.


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## Niffarious (Oct 2, 2011)

I should also mention that these worms were much, MUCH longer. Although the same width as an average sized common bristleworm, they would often be at least 3x the length or more.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Definitely not a bristle worm which could be quite long as well. Send the creep up my spien for sure


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## CisBackA (Sep 4, 2011)

maybe you can find it somewhere on here Worm Hitch Hikers


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## Niffarious (Oct 2, 2011)

There was no direct ID on there, but after some searching based on what I saw there I found this...

Reef Addicts - Pest of the Week -

Same critter. Apparently, some kind of Oenone. As was mentioned, some kind of clam predator primarily, but I did see mine attacking much more...difficult, and fast moving fare!

A quote from a poster on that page:

"The mollusc-eating oenonids produce a different type of mucus when they attack a snail or clam. They cover the prey with it. It has 2 toxins - one is a paralytic that prevents the prey from moving away or closing or holding onto its shell, the other is a digestive that starts breaking down proteins in the prey's flesh. The combination of the two allows the worm to grab hold of the snail & pull it out or to just slurp up the flesh."

That's...exactly what they did (with the crabs and other inverts too).


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## CisBackA (Sep 4, 2011)

glad i could help, its a awesome site, more then just worms on there.
i used it today to ID a worm that came with some green shrooms, turns out it was a soft coral eater, glad i found it before it entered my tank.

burn it alive!


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## STANKYfish (Apr 21, 2011)

This was posted on another form
Read to the end

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1827924


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## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

so it WAS a clamworm  

you should use it for bait  see if you can hook a nice rockfish or something.


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## realshow (May 14, 2010)

I saw those things or something that looked identical to it at crescent beach one evening when we were crabbing off the pier. I dont know why they were there but there was thousands of them. it is the only time I had ever seen them some were over a foot long


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## Dietmar (Dec 15, 2011)

glad you could id it.
another nasty is a bobbit worm, google that!


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## BaoBeiZhu (Apr 24, 2010)

oh man, thats why my snails are dieing. I ve seen one of those in my tank. but i didnt think too much as it was gone before i could get my net


just realized the cause of death for my crab now too !


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