red thread like TINY worms

Hey Ya'll me again!!! I took off the old light(reveal light) when I got my new set in. Everything is turning red and I have what appear to be little tiny red worms in the gravel. They are solid under the sand/crushed coral you can see the seperate veins in that solid mass and above the sand/crushed coral the veins split and turn into what appears to be have 3-5 "tentacles", that branch in different directions, with no appearance of veins. Once they retract back under the sand the return to solid mass with seperate veins. Any suggestions? After further inspection, looking under the tank, I find they are in colonies, still red with green around them.
They are very very thin and long.

 

Spaghetti worms. Very common and perfectly harmless

 

Ditto

 

OK, now I am mixed up. I thought the red thread worms were peanut worms and that they were OK.

Anne

 

peanut worms are brown, hairy, and look like a plain, single, de-skinned peanut when retracted, but when they extend, look like, well, i don't know.. i mean, i do, but don't know how to explain it... either way, they're not red, or resemble thread in any way...

 

oh, and peanut worms ARE ok to have in a tank... i've got, or had, at least one... i've only seen him twice or so...

 

Thanks. I was thinking that spaghetti worms were white in color. Maybe those are the hair worms?

Anne

 

Hey, is there a site that has a good pic of the good and the bad (if there are any) worms that one can find in their aquariums? I know that these things are so small that pics are really difficult---but.....

Anne

 

oh yeah, now that you mention it, i think i do remember someone calling the small white worms that leave behind "cobweb" looking stuff, spaghetti worms.. but these worms live in the LR.... could be wrong tho... and about "good vs. bad" worms... the only worms i've heard to be bad is "some bristleworms"... and that's only related to size... as far as species, i've never heard anything about that... just that the biggest bristleworms need to be removed....

 

speaking of big bristleworms, i used to have a HUGE one in my aquarium... i was feeding my fish one day, and a piece of flake food got stuck on the LR, and if you can imagine it, this worm came out EXACTLY like a hungry hungry hippo! popped his head out of a hole, scarfed down the food and went back into the hole all with in 2 seconds... i don't know how i managed to catch a glimpse of him..