Weird Centipede in Tank

[kitties1]

I looked into my ten gallon with my Afrcian Butterfly fish this morning and noticed that there is a small (1 inch) centipede type thing crawling around the bottom of my tank. All my H2O parameters are perfect, temp included. I recently converted this tank from gravel to sand, washed the sand thoroughly, and then added it to the tank. Does anyone have an idea what htis is? And is it harmful? Thanks for your help.

 

[Max Action]

This thread from the 'net is too relevant not to share. Any of the suggestions made or the photos posted sound/look right?

http/www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=12021

I wish *I* had monstrous beasts in my gravel, damn it!

EDIT: fixed the link which was broken somehow.

 

[impur]

I have worms in my reef tank that look like that, but in FW thats odd. I would use gloves and remove it.

 

[ger87410]

Go here: http/biodiversity.uno.edu/~worms/docs/glasby99all.pdf for info you want. A pic is on page 26.

 

[kitties1]

Okay, here's the deal. Unfortunately I scooped the damn thing out before I took a picture of it. This is the best scenerio I can figure: My RO collection can is in my bathroom. Occasionally we get little critters on the second floor of my apartment, especially after a heavy rain. My cats are pretty good at seek and destroy but the occasional pest gets past them. I think what may have happened is that this thing got into my RO water somehow and when I did a water change it went along for the ride. How it got in the RO container I have no idea since the can is sealed pretty well, but he was kind of smallish, so who knows. It definitely looked like a centipede. From the links some of you provided I would venture to guess that he was able to live because of the special breathing device thing that they have for "flood" situations. I know ants can live under water up 14 days, sooooo.

Anyway it was freakish. I guess if it had happened in my cory tank I never would have know and the coryies would have had a nice live snack, OR, they maybe would have been lunch themselves. Whichever he is now in Garbage Can Land and squished to prevent reemergence. Thanks to everyone that provided some feedback. It was certainly creepy.

p.s. i edited this since my spelling and typos were horrendous

 

[PETsMARTchick]

I don't know...if it looks like anything in the links above, it's probably an aquatic worm. One of the pictures looks like something I've seen at the beach before, a bristleworm I think. Do you have any live plants? Maybe it came in w/ them.

 

[kitties1]

i have no freshwater plants or other materials from outside. everything is plastic except the sand, which was really really cleaned well. i am a fanatic about that type of this. it's not to say though that it wasn't in the sand, or that maybe he got into the sand when it was in the bag and just hung out there until he found himself in some water.
i feel bad about squishing it, but since i hadn't inteded on that type of a critter i did what i had to to protect my fish.