Help ID this worm?

[garagebrian]

Hey all,

I got this as a hitchhiker on my new live rock. What is it? Also, what should I feed it to keep it alive, it is very pretty

I appears to come out of a calcareous tube and it looks a little like a christmas tree worm, but there are no porites corals anywhere nearby.

B.

 

[wade1]

I have never seen a Bisma worm with that sort of variation in color... very pretty indeed! As to them needing porites, that is not the case at all. I see them on the hulls of ships off of NC coast with nothing but barnacles around. Pretty thing... no matter its actual genus, in order to stay alive it will need to feed on phyto and other organics in the water. You can try to use some DTs or concentrated phyto diluted way down and squirted at it while open...

Wade

 

[Anonymous]

You may find this article very helpful:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/ ... toonen.htm

When researchers went a step further, and examined the average size, age, growth and survival rates of worms on different coral species, they found that worms that settled on Diploria strigosa did the best, followed by those living in Montastrea annularis and M. cavernosa, and with Porites porites being solidly in last place for every measure of growth or survival measured for the worms (Hunte et al. 1990b)! 

 

[garagebrian]

Thanks for the help with ID and the great article! I'll do my best to keep these guys alive(I have two of them.).

B.

 

[spsmike]

Anyway that is a hawaiian duster?

 

[garagebrian]

I doubt very much that is a hawaiian duster, this rock is from the gulf of mexico and I think wade is pretty close, if not right, about the Bisma worm.

B.