fireworms eating favias?

[jeremy K]

Recently I have noticed my favia brain corals dying off. They have been fine in my tank for over a year, until one day last week suddenly the polyps were gone and skeleton showing. I am at a loss as to why this happened. But when I lifted the coral up, I noticed many small fireworms underneath it, and burrowing into the base of the rock/skeleton. Do fireworms eat favia corals? Or is their presence there more likely to be coincidental? Until now I have known I had numerous fireworms in the tank, but left them alone assuming them to be effective detritus eaters....

 

[lvpd186]

If they are bristle worms they are probably just there to eat the dying coral tissue since they are scavengers; so that would fall under the coincidence category.

 

[greenbean36191]

Their presence is coincidental. The only fireworm in the hobby that feeds on healthy corals is Hermodice which is big, rare (it's from the Caribbean), and doesn't hide. If you had one feeding on your coral you would see it out during the day on top of the coral, chowing down. You wouldn't find a group of them.