Will small tube worm kill zoos?

[zulreef]

I saw small tube worm spit out what looks like a long silk thread. How can I get rid of these?

 

[wrightme43]

Hi Zulreef, Glad you are here. I call these little guys good news. The little thread you saw is its food gathering aparatus. It draws food and bits of sand back to its mouth and helps to keep you system clean of detirius. If you get up in the night and slowly sneak up on your tank with a flash light, you should see a ton of them in the sand and everywhere. If you drop in some food (a small amount ground to a powder) at night you will see a ton of them. They grow in filters, skimmers, sand, on the rock and everywhere they can. I like them and think they are good. I have no real clue how to get rid of them without killing all the stuff you want to keep. HTH Steve

 

[zulreef]

Hi Zulreef, Glad you are here. I call these little guys good news. The little thread you saw is its food gathering aparatus. It draws food and bits of sand back to its mouth and helps to keep you system clean of detirius. If you get up in the night and slowly sneak up on your tank with a flash light, you should see a ton of them in the sand and everywhere. If you drop in some food (a small amount ground to a powder) at night you will see a ton of them. They grow in filters, skimmers, sand, on the rock and everywhere they can. I like them and think they are good. I have no real clue how to get rid of them without killing all the stuff you want to keep. HTH Steve

Steve, Ok.....thanks

 

[Anthony Calfo]

Hmmm.. its tough to see from the image, but they may not be worms at all but rather sessile vermitid snails (they form worm like tubes).

Either way, they are harmless (short of scraping your hands when working in the tank... septic concerns there).

But if these organisms should flare in population in the future, it is a sign of rather high organics in the tank which in itself can lead to other "bad" problems. Enjoy these creatures, but don't encourage them unless you are recreating the hotel sewage effluent biotope

 

[zulreef]

Hmmm.. its tough to see from the image, but they may not be worms at all but rather sessile vermitid snails (they form worm like tubes).

Either way, they are harmless (short of scraping your hands when working in the tank... septic concerns there).

But if these organisms should flare in population in the future, it is a sign of rather high organics in the tank which in itself can lead to other "bad" problems. Enjoy these creatures, but don't encourage them unless you are recreating the hotel sewage effluent biotope

Anthony Calfo,

Thanks for the info.

Zul

 

[Anthony Calfo]

always welcome my friend

 

[Heart of Dixie]

Anthony,

I had a few of them, but when I started dosing live phyto, they multiplied like rabbits. I stopped dosing the phyto in hopes that they will die off. Does this sound reasonable?
Thanks for your input

 

[Anthony Calfo]

The worms themselves are truly harmless. I would not worry so much about controlling them... they will be controlled (limited) by your (good) water quality. You don't actually want them eliminated.

 

[Heart of Dixie]

Anthony,
Thanks for the information. There was one or two, then dozens, then hundreds. They must have enjoyed the phyto!