White Worms On Live Rock - What Are These?

HI all,

I bought a piece of live rock a little over a month ago and put it in a 5 gallon bucket with dry rock to start cycling. The cycle occurred and finished about a week ago. So I put the rocks into the display tank and bought my first fish. Then today I noticed these white worms on the live rock. They look fairly fresh and weren't there when I first inspected the rock a month ago. Should I worry? Can I remove the piece of live rock from the tank?

The live rock was put into the sump since it did not match the rocks in the display tank. Hopefully these worms haven't spread there yet.

Thanks

 

It looks SpaghettI Worms to me only real harm is if they grow to a sustainable amount if you have tons of them and then conditions switch quickly

 

No experience with spaghettI worms myself yet, but I have done some reading. The key words above are "sustainable amount", and they're great little detritus eaters. So, as long as the tank is kept fairly clean, you shouldn't have them reach epidemic proportions. Having 'some' spaghettI worms is often considered a good thing.

 

Thanks for the help I'll keep an eye on them. Should I be avoiding contact with them when I do tank maintenance?

 

I'm not really sure about touching them... I guess there's always a chance of irritation but they are not predatory animals, so I doubt they'd sting badly. As far as avoiding them so as to leave them in your tank and not 'clean' them out? That's up to you.