Gigantea eats a bristleworm

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

My new gigantea has apparently tried to eat a medium large bristle worm. I hope it will be OK, but its mouth parts are rather "swollen", I can see bristles stuck in parts of it, and the worm is part in and part out. The anemone body is generally as inflated as usual.

The worm is about 3/8 to 1/2" wide. Not huge, but big enough to make me not want to touch it.

I gently tried to lift the worm with a pipette, but the mouth was holding it in.

 

[sardonicscorpio]

Hope its ok....but where are the pics?!?!? I hate bristleworms...

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Yikes Randy! Don some gloves and see if you can get the rest of the bristleworm out.

 

[jasonrp104]

You could try tweezers. I know my crispa has had a few bristleworms touch it on the column and the oral disk with no apparent side effects. They live in the rock it burrows under so when I feed the tank they are all over it.

 

[garygb]

I would leave the anemone alone. They will regurgitate whatever they can't digest. Sometimes poking and prodding does more harm than good. The swollen area might just be the anemones mouth trying to engulf or reject the worm. I don't know that injury to an anemone results in edema the same way as animals higher up the taxonomic tree.

 

[Winwood]

Pictures perhaps?

 

[OrionN]

My Haddoni carpet and Malu ate Brissle worm all the time without problem.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Well, this is not going well.

After a few hours, it was not improving. The mouth was open and swollen, and the worm had not moved in or out. So I gently removed it (easily) with tweezers.

The next day, more of the worm was being partly ejected, so I again removed more (about 2" long).

This morning (another day later) the mouth is still puffed out and I still see bristles in it.

 

[elegance coral]

I'm so sorry Randy. It sounds like you have luck like mine.:worried: Hopefully the anemone will just be uncomfortable for a while. It did look very healthy. Are the spines to small/numerous to pull out with tweezers?

 

[OrionN]

Good luck.
My anmenes are death to many bristle worms. I think I posted about it several years ago.

 

[clowns101]

Good luck with it.Hope all goes well and the anemone learns from this...LOL

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Well, good news! The anemone was much improved yesterday and today it is back to normal. Exanded nicely, mouth closed, etc.

Of course, it may just be a matter of time before it swallows another worm.

 

[Winwood]

Hooray! Pictures now? Seriously though congratulations you must be very relieved.