Help! Control of Spaghetti Worms

[pedromatic]

My 90 is overrun with Spaghetti Worms. They're in every inch of sand, in the LR, everywhere. They are very efficient cleanup crew, but any trace of food that falls to the bottom is immediately grabbed by these guys. Recently I had a fish that wasn't doing too well. It would lay on the bottom and the SWs kept trying to grab the poor thing. They recently spawned and so are creating even more SWs. What can I use to control them?

 

[acrodave]

maybe a wrasse ?

 

[pedromatic]

The tank currently has (among other fish) a 4 inch Golden Coris Wrasse - Halichoeres chrysus, a 1.5 inch Six Line Wrasse - Pseudocheilinus hexataenia, a 4 inch Banded Goby - Amblygobius phalaena, a 3 inch Sand Sifting Sea Star - Astropecten polycanthus, and numerous snails, crabs and shrimp.

I don't usually vacuum my sand bed when I do a water change, maybe I should try that? The worms are lighter than sand and would probably get sucked up.

 

[db_triggerfish]

sorry to hear that, stuff like this will keep from going over board on buying too many corals, i need to have no more than 10 corals so if i get an outbreak like this i can remove all corals and nuke it with what ever chemical is necessary.

 

[ek9vboi]

I hate those worm. I remembered when I had only one of them... it kept suck up sand/food, etc and would puff out clouds. It annoyed me, so I took it out of my display and then I placed it in the sump... ONLY to be flushed a few weeks later.

I would try to get as much of them out as possible.

 

[jessp]

can i have some of them?

 

[pedromatic]

PM sent to jess.

BTW, I did a water change and tried vacuuming them up. I did manage to get some smaller ones, but most just dropped back out of the tube with the sand.

 

[Bret61081]

id get a copperband...they love little worms....will prolly make short work of them!

 

[jessp]

i know coris wrasse will not eat them mine never touched them, mandarin will not eat them either.

 

[ahoyhoy239]

it might cause and outbreak of cyano, but i would start ripping them out by hand in desperation. i like ti try and keep things balanced, as long as it behaves its ok, if not, its toilet time

 

[pedromatic]

I'd rather not go to drastic measures. In order to "rip them out" I'd have to scoop up all the sand in my tank and throw it out. Even then they're in some of the rocks too.

I just want a balance, something to keep them under control. As we speak I saw one spawning. Aaaaaarrrrrrgh!

 

[chrisaggie]

I agree with Bret, a copperband will tear them up.

 

[pedromatic]

I'm assuming you're referring to Copperband Butterfly - Chelmon rostratus. Anybody seen them at a LFS lately?

 

[gasman059]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10125646#post10125646 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pedromatic
I'm assuming you're referring to Copperband Butterfly - Chelmon rostratus. Anybody seen them at a LFS lately?

I saw some lat week at Big Als(pretty big)-also at RL also at exotic