I posted once before that color is a bad indicator of species of bristleworm as to whether it's "harmless" or a real threat to corals, since at least one species of pretty common bristleworm has a variety of color forms that can occur in aquaria. I see a lot of posts here referencing fire worms (usually a Hermodice ref) as being the bright red ones. I'd just like to toss a couple cents out on that.
In my 1 gallon pico bowl, I have only one speices that was seeded with two exceptionally large individuals pulled out of another tank. The rockwork is stuff I cured myself pretty much from scratch, so there was no introduction of other species. And just tonight, I watched the most beautiful metallic blue-black bristleworm crawl out of the rockwork briefly to get some food (it'll be a long laborious camera battle to catch this...I'm going to try but will probably fail). It's a truely spectacular worm, but is the exact same species as the unamazing pinkish ones that I grumble about in my 12g. My pico bowl is the one tank where the worms can't make pests of themselves, and keeping them in there pays off when I get to see such unusual color variants pop up. What I've seen from the single species alone includes:
- Pale pinkish-gray, the fairly blah color that the parents were.
- Bright cherry red, the first other variety that showed up.
- Bubblegum pink, the second other one to show up. Lacks the gray-ish tint of the parents.
- Pale yellow - I think it must be albinism. Very rare and beautiful when it shows up, but seems to not live as long or grow as large.
- Metallic blue-black, the most recent one to add to the list that just showed up.
Were it not for the fact that these worms are in 1 gallon bowl having started with a very limited gene pool and being observed daily, I probably never would have seen these or would have thought I had different species. In all the worm generations, I've only seen a handfull of yellow ones. But still, it goes to show that color really can't be used to determine whether a species is a good/bad worm to have. The difference between the bright red ones I've had and a Hermodice is down to arrangement of the spines and gills, not color. Many of the bubblegum pink offspring also start out being pretty bright red and then fade, which for a while when they're small makes them look an awful lot like Hermodice even though they're not.
So just something to keep in mind when trying to ID marine wigglies...you can't tell a bristleworm by its color
In my 1 gallon pico bowl, I have only one speices that was seeded with two exceptionally large individuals pulled out of another tank. The rockwork is stuff I cured myself pretty much from scratch, so there was no introduction of other species. And just tonight, I watched the most beautiful metallic blue-black bristleworm crawl out of the rockwork briefly to get some food (it'll be a long laborious camera battle to catch this...I'm going to try but will probably fail). It's a truely spectacular worm, but is the exact same species as the unamazing pinkish ones that I grumble about in my 12g. My pico bowl is the one tank where the worms can't make pests of themselves, and keeping them in there pays off when I get to see such unusual color variants pop up. What I've seen from the single species alone includes:
- Pale pinkish-gray, the fairly blah color that the parents were.
- Bright cherry red, the first other variety that showed up.
- Bubblegum pink, the second other one to show up. Lacks the gray-ish tint of the parents.
- Pale yellow - I think it must be albinism. Very rare and beautiful when it shows up, but seems to not live as long or grow as large.
- Metallic blue-black, the most recent one to add to the list that just showed up.
Were it not for the fact that these worms are in 1 gallon bowl having started with a very limited gene pool and being observed daily, I probably never would have seen these or would have thought I had different species. In all the worm generations, I've only seen a handfull of yellow ones. But still, it goes to show that color really can't be used to determine whether a species is a good/bad worm to have. The difference between the bright red ones I've had and a Hermodice is down to arrangement of the spines and gills, not color. Many of the bubblegum pink offspring also start out being pretty bright red and then fade, which for a while when they're small makes them look an awful lot like Hermodice even though they're not.
So just something to keep in mind when trying to ID marine wigglies...you can't tell a bristleworm by its color
