I caught a eunice worm!

[Steve973]

Finally, after losing all of my zoanthids and a bunch of other stuff, the eunice worm that was plaguing my 18 gallon aquarium is in isolated custody! This is a major accomplishment for me, since I've known of its existence for quite some time. It's well over a foot long, and I realize that's not huge by oregonreef.com standards, but it's big enough and destructive enough! I was able to catch the bastage because my girlfriend and I moved this weekend, so of course I had to move my tank. I noticed that one of the rocks had a bunch of crab shell pieces and other particles around a hole, so I investigated it more carefully. Sure enough, the eunice worm was hiding in the rock, so i cracked it open and got it out. I think I got all of it, but just in case a segment was lingering in the rock, I threw that rock away. It's worth the peace of mind! So if any of you are trying to find one of these worms, consider pulling your rockwork apart and look for its lair. It's not as hopeless as it might seem, although if you have a big tank, it will surely be a daunting task! Anyway, I wish I could pass this worm to someone else instead of killing it. Any ideas?

 

[Grunt]

There were alot of people intrested in the last one that was caught a month or two ago. You might get a response and/or wanna look for that thread/contacts. (free bump )

 

[musty baby]

Then again, you may want to murder it out of spite

 

[ReefObsessor805]

Just get a can of WD-40 and a Zippo...then it's just point & shoot from there... LOL

 

[kiknchikn]

Seeing how close by you are I'm half tempted to ask if I can come see it in person lol

 

[chocolateblnt]

i'm curious as to what it looks like ... can you post a pic?

 

[kmk2307]

If you would like to donate it to my university's invert. zoology specimen collection, please PM me. I could cover the shipping expenses. Be careful when handling it so it doesn't break, they fragment easily.

Thank you!
Kevin Kocot

 

[venwu225]

I am also interested.

 

[Steve973]

Yeah, I'd prefer not to kill it since it was only doing what nature tells it to do, and that's not malicious. I remember when it entered my tank, but I didn't know what it was. I bought a purple-tipped acro that was attached to an artificial base rock, and i remember seeing an inch-long and very thin black worm, and I didn't know what it was, so I didn't bother to attempt to get it out of the tank. After that, I saw no evidence of the worm until my zoanthids began disappearing, but I didn't put 2 and 2 together. Then late one night I looked into the tank with a flashlight, and I saw part of this worm slithering past a crevice. I tried to use a simple homemade trap, but I laughed at my efforts after I saw the size of the worm, since there was no way it would've pulled its entire length into that little container. It seems like tearing the tank down is pretty much the only way to capture them.

 

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8378432#post8378432 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Steve973
It seems like tearing the tank down is pretty much the only way to capture them.

I am actually lucky enough to have a breeding population of these in my tank Mine are fairly benign though as they are a Gulf of Mexico species and only bother one species of Gulf of Mexico coral.

I monitor my rocks daily to see if there are any large ones and once every few months I'll find one and watch it withdraw into its lair. I then take that rock briefly out of the tank, squirt a little freshwater into the lair and it comes wriggling out of the hole. Just another option if you don't want to destroy a piece of live rock.

Brian

 

[Steve973]

Well, I'd love to post pictures. the 50K filesize limitation really cramps my style, so I'll try to link to my images on nano-reef.com. If they don't work, you can see the pictures in my gallery. I have the same account name over there. Anyway, here's the thread:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=100569&st=0&gopid=933963&#entry933963

And let's see if the pics post:

and

Sorry if I've broken any rules, or if the links aren't working because of cross-linking or whatever it's called.

Steve

 

[johnnybravo234]

nice catch