Some sort of worm?

In the last couple weeks I've started to notice some silvery segmented worms in the tank. The first time I saw one, i thought I was imagining it, because it was gone so quick, and thought I was misinterpreting a bubble, but then I've seen a couple more of different sizes. I haven't added anything new to my tank in a couple months, so I figure they've been hiding in there since I added my live rock over six months ago. Given this, I'm not terribly worried for my fish, but I can't seem to find any pics on any advice sites that look anything like them, and I'd like to know what's lurking in my tank. Ideas?

 

Lightning fast hitchhiking worm? Could be Eunicid worms.

 

Doesn't look anything like the pics online. What I have looks more like silver caterpillars. Smallest I've seen was a little over an inch long, largest was ~3". They appear to be more interested in algae than fish, at least for now.

 

Bristleworm? Mine, while both orange and silvery, do look somewhat like stretchy silvery/orange a little fuzzy caterpillars. And range from an an inch or smaller to 3ish inches.

 

check out this website, maybe it will help
Live Rock Hitch Hikers

 

Try to have your camera ready every time you head to the tank and snap a shot of it. They usually come out at night, so flashlight and camera w/flash ready is the way to get a good pick of it.

If it's fast, I agree with eunicid worm. There are many, MANY variants and subspecies. I recently had to boil a rock to kill one I found in my tank, after more than 1 year of adding the rock. My eunicid worm was eating my snails. So if you have small snails and you see accumulation of what looks like empty shells anywhere in the tank, this would also be your case. Good luck with the pic. It will help see what it is.

- Mag.

 

Managed to catch one in a bit of coral as I was cleaning the tank. Here are photos, the first is a clearer shot, the latter shows it with a headphone jack for size indication:
fishtankwormA.jpg picture by Dusty_Youngs - Photobucket
fishtankwormc.jpg picture by Dusty_Youngs - Photobucket

 

looks kinda like a bristle worm to me.

 

It's an Eunicid worm. One of their ends is a rounded tube and that's where the head and jaws are. They're way much faster than bristle worms and will eat snails and even catch fish in their sleep when they grow big enough. Glad you got him. Have you thought about a trap?

I recently bleached, boiled and nuked a piece of rock that had one of them. I was unable to catch him by hand since he was so quick. And I'm hoping he was the only one.

Congrats!

- Mag.