bristle worm?

archaic · 12-30-2006, 10:41 PM

is it a bristle worm ? i kept wondering why my goniopora was closed the worm kept crawling on em and i saw em so i used the turkey baster on him lol

dobejazz · 12-30-2006, 11:52 PM

It's hard to tell from the pic can you get a closer shot maybe with the macro setting on the camera ?
Bristle worms are not really preditory and Goni's are very difficult to keep so he may have been acting as the clean up crew if the goni has decaying tissue

archaic · 12-31-2006, 01:15 AM

it only shrunk up today .. it has never done it before unless my clownfish or wrasse poked at it

LeslieH · 12-31-2006, 02:37 AM

It's a polychaete but not what reefers normally call bristleworms which are in the family Amphinomidae. Unfortunately the pic isn't good for me to tell what family it belongs to and whether it could be a predator or harmless. The goni may just be reacting to the worm crawling on it.

Loverotties · 12-31-2006, 06:53 AM

Please try a Macro pic.

Fly Guy · 12-31-2006, 01:25 PM

I agree with leslieh.

I doubt it is harming your goni, but you will find that if you have caught something and arent sure........DONT ever let it go back in your display. Chances are you will never get the chance to catch it again.

When in doubt get it out. : )

John Kelly · 12-31-2006, 08:50 PM

It's just a different kind of "bristleworm". They are commonly seen on Goniopora and do not appear to harm them (so far), but they can irritate the polyps some.