How many people have Eunicid Worms? How many care?

[aznlmpulse]

I've done a search here on RC and all through the net, and it seems to be a split. I have a few in my tank, and I try to fish them out whenever I can...

Does everyone have them? Do people know what they are? There's only a handful of threads on these things.

Does it bother you that they're there?

Does it bother you that they can grow up to 7ft long?

If you have them, what type of LR did they come in?

 

[bpoore89]

I found one the other night that had been sucked into my filter. Scary looking little buggers. I have no knowledge of them at all

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

No, I don't have them. Yes, I know what they are. Yes, it bothers me to have them in tanks. Yes, it bothers me that they grow so large (and eat so much). They come in on Indo-Pacific Live Rock, so Fiji, Kaelini, Tonga, etc are all able to bring them in.

 

[mystery_reef]

yes i have them too and got a pretty big one out and am working on getting a few others out as they destroy my soft corals and eat small fish

 

[Ralph ATL]

I have a jet black one, with red. It looks awesome, however, I wouldn't mind if it decided to "move out"! Not much I can really do with it for me to get it out. It scared me when it starting picking up 1/2 rocks & moving them into it's den.

 

[mastou]

I have many bristle worms, I don't know exactly which type but they are probably not Eunicid they don't seem to grow very big and more resembles Eurythoe complanata from this page: http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/hitchworms.html

They have never don't anything bad - well they spawned but that didn't seem to do any damage at all so I'm happy with my worms

Links to films of the spawning events below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-wP-kZM2aw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1PjJbR9zos

/Magnus

 

[rharr21]

I have one living in my LR. It is about the diameter of a pencil and I have no idea how long it is. I first saw it a few months ago. Most people told me to get rid of it, but I have never seen it eat anything other than flake food. Until I have proof that it is damaging anything, I'm keeping it as part of the diversity in my tank. My soft corals are healthy and none have come up missing. So my guess is not all of these worms eat the same stuff.

 

[fantastic4]

Had 3 of them. Took the risk and added a Dragon Wrasse (no more Eunicids that I can see, none!)

Those are some scary worms, they are predators! and half spider like with their silk produced when they feed.

 

[johnd4g]

I have one and have been trying to get rid of him for months. He has a voracious appetite for soft corals especially zoas. He's now starting to develop a taste for my candy cane coral. He's about the diameter of a pencil, grayish color with an irradescent hue. He's extremely fast. I've never seen him completely out of his hole. But he's a least a foot long. I've tried the shrimp in the bottle trap many times but, no luck. I've tried dipping most of my live rock in fresh water, but no luck. Any suggestions to get rid of this guy would be appreciated.

 

[GoingPostal]

I squirted hot tap water into the holes mine made to get him out, ended up ripping him into three pieces when he tried to go back in at the end, felt kinda bad about that. Mine was in a nano tank and I knew what rock him was in though, they are impossible to get to come out all the way usually but you can crack the rock open too if you have to. Maybe look for rubble near holes, mine used his glue crap to cover up all the entrances with crushed coral and rock.

 

[Tayler]

you could try squirting them with lemon juice. i was killing some aptasia and some of the lemon juice went in some holes and then all the bristle worms came out of the holes wiggling like crazy it may do the same for eunicids.

 

[Sk8r]

Bristleworms: asset.
Eunicids---will probably go after something you care about; if not, don't worry.

 

[romunov]

I have two eunicids in my tank. They're both about 20 cm in length. They devoured my Stomatella snails and probably other things. None the less, I think they're great, and enjoy watching them.

 

[therman]

Kind of crazy, but I bet I have at least 10 in my 29g tank. When I drop pellets in little tentacles poke out all over the place and they sneak out and grab them, then shoot back into holes.

So far *knock on wood* havent eaten anything important. I've seen them chowing down on big chunks of macroalgae, and pellets, but that's it. Corals don't seem to be touched. Most are reddish brown with some iridescence, and vary in size from 2-6mm in diameter.

There's too many to even try to eradicate them, but so far no problems that I've seen. Still have stomatellas galore and plenty of other life in tank.

-Tim

 

[aznlmpulse]

I've probably pulled out about 15-20 of them, and I still see them every now and then...about 4 in's long. I don't have too much life in my tank, but they just don't give me a good feeling.

 

[edandsandy]

are the Stomatella snails bad for the reef tank?

 

[mastou]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10694022#post10694022 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by edandsandy
are the Stomatella snails bad for the reef tank?

No they are some of the good guys, great algae eaters

 

[Chibils]

I don't know much about dragon wrasses... Are they reef safe? How agressive?

 

[lotus02]

For those living with Eunicid worms you might want to change your mind. This is the one I removed from my old 180 stretched out it was 6' and tried to pull my 3" clam into its den. It ate most of my zoo's, acans, mushrooms, rics and almost all my snails.

 

[650-IS350]

Yup, their known to decimate a tank as soon as they get bigger... I kill those little @**^$% the minute I find them at night.