2 foot bristleworm

No pics since he comes out only at night. I almost got him with my reef tongs but it slipped out of the grip. I want it out cause I saw him grazing over my zoas. I lost some Tubbs blues by him.
 
dam that sucker must be huge... but yea don't get stung by them it hurts like hell... O.. i would use a red light on the tank and put some food in the fish net and put it near a rock. and see if that monster crawls in.
 
yea take a picture of him when u catch him, i wanna see, i have like a million of them in my tank. biggest one i seen was about 3 inches long
 
Have you tried making your own worm trap?? You could probably use a 20oz pop bottle. Drill a hole in the cap to the desired size (smaller the better) and cut off the top right where it starts to cone. Apply some aquarium silicon or epoxy to the inside of the main compartment and reinsert the cone backwards. You might want to stick a useless rock in there first to weight it down. Insert your bait and stick it next to its favorite hiding hole.

Hope that helps.
 
Yea, I went to a local plastic fab shop and picked up some 1"acrylic tubing. I will try to rig up a trap somehow. At 100am this morning I almost got him out by using those mechanics spring grabbers, I had 1/4 of him hanging out over the canopy door, but he's so fast he pulled back in the tank. He is 3 ft long when fully extended. He went to what was left of my zoas, so I was able to grab him at the tail end. I know he is aware that I am after him after grabbing him twice now. Any suggestions what I should do with it when I get him?
 
hmmmm....all the possibilities...haha....well i would flush him...but you may want to keep him for show ;) in a separate tank of course

sorry to hear about your zoas.....did you say that he sticks out from 2 ends?? if so try a coat hanger or air tubing to push him out from one end......better yet....boil water and pump it into his hole with the tubing...that ought to get him out in a hurry
 
Don't flush him - not worth jamming up your toilet. And are you sure you have a bristle worm?? It may be a eunicid worm if it looks more like a centipede like you described and is snacking on your zoos... I think they may bite, could be full of crap on that one though, but watch your digits. :)

If you catch the devil, see if anyone on here wants him. Some people keep those creepy monsters. And I don't know for sure, but I think somebody was looking for worms a while ago to study for some research.
 
I would trap him. For example, take a 2liter pop bottle, put some fresh seafood in it, and put some filter floss stuff in there as well for him to "hide" in. If you don't feed the tank for a few days ahead of time, the worm will be very hungry.

When he goes in to get the seafood, which of course will smell very tantalizing to him, you go after the end that is not in the trap, and he will pull that end into the trap to "hide" in the batting, at which point you pull the pop bottle out with the worm in.

I used a variation to get a 6-inch worm that ate a peppermint shrimp out of my 6 gallon -- I put scallop in the turkey baster, the worm crawled up into it, and I pulled out the baster with worm inside.
 
I captured him at night using the mechanics pick-up fingers. He was 4" long when outstetched. These worms can get real long called a Eunicid worm. Theres a guy in Oregon reefs who had one that was in his pvc rock work. Anyway it died in the container after a day. Now I can buy new zoas!!!
 
From my understanding, asking around, research and short lived experience. I could understand just by the sight of the worm(s) you would want it out. At first I wanted every worms out of my reef tank out. That's untill I realize that my tank needed these worms. I was worried that a worm would get into my Clams and eat them. Long story short, a Conch got to clam while moving to a new home. I recken that if you want the worm out try some viniger, or put a krill in a pen near him and wait till his fully expose and snatch the pen as he is inside ASAP. Mind you, if use something to grab it that might break his body in two that two worms in your hand.

However, in all honestly I welcome the worms in my tank, for many reason. The only threat they pose is the stinging sensation if one touches them. Bristle worms help with my over feeding, which is very important, (keeps amonia low) also they make good food for others that may feed on then (six line warrse) or predators that feed on them. A couple of reasons that I hope you may find helpful.

suncoral27
 
It was a EUCINID worm which prey on soft coral like zoas. Why would I want my corals to be eaten? These worms are different than the good worms that you are talking of. Do a web search on this worm just in case you see one in your tank at night.
 
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