Sandbed Worm critter ID

I'm hoping someone can maybe help me ID these critters I have that grow basically throughout my sandbed, but they love overhangs and whatnot. They are soooo small they are almost impossible for me to photograph. I'm sure they aren't harmful as I've had them in this tank for over a year, but they do keep multiplying! I started with a few in a small area of the tank, now they are everywhere!

They live in these hard tubes - which actually seem to hold my sand down a bit - and they are really hard to scrape off of clams, corals, etc once they encrust.







The worms themselves look like very very thin white thread. They poke out of the sandbed and "flow with the wind"... like feeding sweeper tentacles on a LPS coral

Hopefully thats enough info, but if we need more I can see what I can do!!

I have a ton of the same thing you're talking about. I think this article explains them (I believe it's the chaetopterid worm).

The Worms Crawl In

Ohhh great link - these guys sound familiar:

Phyllochaetopterus individuals build a tube out of "hardened" mucus in which they cement sand grains. These tubes can be up to an inch or so in length and are about the diameter of a thin piece of pencil lead. They will be oriented vertically in the sediments or occasionally found filling pre-existing holes in rocks. The worms themselves are quite small, less than a quarter inch long; in fact, in most cases less than a tenth of an inch. Consequently, their typical tube provides them with quite a spacious home. The tentacles are often five to ten times the length of the rest of the worm, and when examined with a hand lens or good magnifying glass, the various regions of the worm may be seen to have distinctly different appearances.

Phyllochaetopterus is generally a benign member of the detritivore group found in reef tanks and they are pretty good scavengers; any particulate material that strikes their tentacles is pulled into the tube and eaten. However, they are gregarious and reproduce well in reef tanks. These two properties may, in time, cause some problems. The worms can form quite large mats with literally hundreds to thousands of tubes all cemented together. These mats quite efficiently exclude other worms from the area, and can seal off the sand bed surface. This, in turn, can cause the emigration of other animals out from under such a patch, which can result in the cementation of sediments under the patch and the failure of the sand bed biological filtration under the patch of worms. Such worm masses need to be periodically broken up or removed from the system, otherwise they may cause the complete failure of a deep sand bed. The reproduction and subsequent patch growth can occur with surprising speed. In a 60 gallon hex tank I once had, I introduced some of these worms and, within about three months, they had literally paved the sand bed surface with their tubes. I attempted to remove them all, and it was not an easy task.

I'd better remember to break them up from time to time so my sand doesn't become a rock of snail tubes!! hahaha

Originally Posted by estanoche

I'd better remember to break them up from time to time so my sand doesn't become a rock of snail tubes!! hahaha

lol yeah, the tubes in my tank were getting so bad they started poking out of the sandbed. At night, when the lights went out, the sandbed looked like something from a sci-fi horror film O_o

I've had those before I never seen them hurt anything.

I have them too! Glad to see they are not too destructive! Good thing my Watchmen Goby has OCD and changes the sand layout often!

Originally Posted by LadyOfIreland

I have a ton of the same thing you're talking about. I think this article explains them (I believe it's the chaetopterid worm).

The Worms Crawl In

wow.......excellent article Lady!!! thanks for sharing! ....while not really harmful, it's good to know what could happen if we don't keep them under control!!!

I wonder if sand-sifting stars, snails and gobies help break that apart???

cool pics too joanne.....and cool thread!

my wrasse does a pretty good job at turning the sandbed daily - but the places she doesnt reach, like around the clams and whatnot seem to have a pretty heavy concentration of these guys ....

time to go work killing!! hehehe

ooohhh...........can you video this for us?

Originally Posted by Barbara

ooohhh...........can you video this for us?

I should tell santa husband I need a t2 or t3 so I can take HD macro video so you can actually see the buggers!!

scheme ensue!!!

Originally Posted by estanoche

I should tell santa husband I need a t2 or t3 so I can take HD macro video so you can actually see the buggers!!

scheme ensue!!!

YES!!! excellent scheme - I mean - idea!

hmmmmm santa husband never came through hahaha

but I do have a question to put before the house - have you ever heard of anything that eats these dang things??? They are starting to irritate me, and are moving up the rockwork now!! (musta run outta sand, hahaha)

One person suggested mandarins eat them........ thoughts??

I wouldn't think maderins would eat them. They only think I would recommend would be a sand cucumber. Sand sifting stars and snails eat the beneficial critters in your sand beds, making them pretty much useless, except to look pretty.

If you're looking to just get rid of them, then the star or snails, maybe even a goby or jawfish would help. I'm surprised the wrasses don't eat them.

Meh, they've found an ecological niche and likely outcompeted something else. Remove them, and you may be leaving a gap that something may or may not be able to cover.

Originally Posted by Ashlar

Meh, they've found an ecological niche and likely outcompeted something else. Remove them, and you may be leaving a gap that something may or may not be able to cover.

true, that is a good point....

I take these out and my flatworms will bounce back.... or the dang bryopsis... lol, I cant win for loosing!!!