What are these and where did they come from?

kelsyleyendecker

Active Member
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We bought some larger snails from Petco which the hermit crab has enjoyed for a meal instead of them helping clean.... but I noticed these little trunks sticking out of the sand a few days ago and just saw what they belong to. There's some tiny crawlers in here. How did they get here when we only bought larger snails?

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And what is this worm looking thing. It only seems to come out and night but I was cleaning the tank and it fell out of a rock. It's the size of about a meal worm or so.

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frisbee

Well-Known Member
If you used any live rock then the snail may have hitchhiked a ride into your tank. This could be a harmless Nassarius snail, or it could be some sort of predatory Whelk. You might want to take it out just to be safe for the time being. Put it in a small Tupperware container full of water & take some pictures of both the top & the bottom of the snail and post it. This will make it a little bit easier for us to properly identify it. As far as the worm goes, it's probably just a harmless bristle worm.

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker.shtml

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/rs/index.php
 
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Adrienne

Well-Known Member
One thing about bristleworms if you haven't looked up anything to find out about them. Don't touch them with bare hands! They have tiny little bristles which are kind of like plant prickles but an awful lot harder to get out and they hurt. But bristleworms in moderation are good cleaners up of waste in your tank.
 
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