Evil Polychaete

[Youkai]

Ever since I started my aquarium, I've had issues with the slow but steady disappearance of invertebrates.
Snails are usually first, then small hermits, then even large hermits. Even peppermint shrimp. My abalone.
Fish do just fine. The only fish are, infact, seahorses and pipefish.
Corals thrive...however, I've noticed that it seems something is going for the zoanthids.
Water parameters are all normal.

Then, just the other day I walked by my aquarium and noticed a huge amount of slime. Normally, when I walk by my tank, it doesn't look like ectoplasm is billowing out of the rocks. This caused me to raise an eyebrow.
Upon investigation, I found an unusual worm that seemed to be attacking a hermit. Instead of 'bristles' (like bristleworms) it had many legs. It has a flattened head with what seems to be very simple eyes. It was going inside the hermit's shell, and had covered itself and the crab in this slime.
It escaped into the rockwork.

If anyone can identify this critter, or has any suggestions...let me know.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1184/719013272_3e6857ae60_o.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1293/718136573_5d79a55ef1_o.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1303/719012494_1dd61964d2_o.jpg

[untamed]

Very cool. My recommendation is to continue to purchase snails and hermits as necessary.

[Youkai]

That would be fine, but the rise in invert death has been matched by a rise in the loss of corals such as zoanthids. I'm not prepared to keep serving those up as dinner for a couple of worms. ;)

[prodogg02]

thats one strange worm only kind i can think of that would kill hermits and inverts would be somthin like a bobbit worn just my 2 cents

[mark]

everytime I hear of a evil worm I think of this post (http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm)

[Shrimpy]

See if you can find that worm here. (http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/hitchworms.html)

[Youkai]

Mike, the worm in that story indeed puts mine to shame. That is incredibly neat and ridiculously creepy at the same time. I'd be tempted to set up a tank just for it...

Shrimpy, looking at that list, it would seem that mine is some kind of Oenonid worm. I can find precious little about them though, and certainly not on their habits in a reef tank (or say, how to remove them...).

I'm thinking that baiting some kind of trap with a live snail might do the trick.