I think I found my softie eater

Runner

Runner

Active member
Over the last few weeks, I've had small colonies of zoanthids go missing -- mostly in the central-right area of my tank. And mostly all my nice, colorful frags that I like the best. Go figure. No way a nudibrach could eat that fast. I even had a patch eaten through my EvilMel greens. And my small xenia stalks disappeared overnight. None of my other critters are known to eat corals. So late last night I shined a flashlight on the tank -- and think I have the culprit. He had not left the safety of the rock yet, but I saw a 3" middle section of about a 1/8" diameter bristle-worm exposed going from one hole to another in the affected area. No idea how long he actually is. When I stuck my grabber in to get him, the speed at which he disappeared amazed me. I've never seen a worm move that fast before.

Needless to say, I am on night watch tonight again. If I see him, his entire rock is coming out...
 
Before flaming, I had a true fireworm that munched on my zoanthids. It was positively identified by Eric Borneman(by photo) as the one true coral eating species.

There are ones out there that DO eat corals. I don't like bristleworms because of it
 
Okay. I'll take a picture before I toast him then. No luck finding him last night because I overslept this morning. I'll try again tonight.
:D
 
Then again, perhaps I'll just put it in a bucket with the rock crab and let them fight to the death.

:D
 
The evil spawn of Satan has been eliminated. He ended up being about 2 FEET long and around 3/4" in diameter. It was hauntingly and frighteningly beautiful -- especially when the sun hit its copper skin and gave off a rainbow sheen.

I can't take any credit for getting the thing, though. I was just pulling out and rearranging rocks to make room for the new frogspawn. As I lowered a big rock into my water-change bucket, this long thing quickly slithers out of a small hole. I nearly jumped out of my skin. That thing was FAST. It took me 5 minutes in a 5G bucket with tongs before I grabbed its tail and broke off a 4~5" piece. Apparently they sacrifice to escape just like lizards. The entire thing somewhat resembles the evil aliens from StarGate.

I took it over to Don's house so he could take pics of the thing (my camera is broken). I'll post pics from work tomorrow after he sends them to me. This thing is a monster. As near as I can tell, it wiped out three large ricordea, a colony of Zenia (I could make money on something that does that!), and multiple colonies of zoanthids that were resting within a foot of his rock -- including a 50+ colony of EvilMel's green skirts. I need to get a new set of nice zoanthid frags from one of our local guys to replace all the worm food.

The rock it was in was the one that came with the mushrooms and ricordea from middle Tennessee. I am thinking that perhaps that is where I got it from.

Anyway, the thing has been disposed of in an inhumane manner. Perhaps I should have sent it to Dr Ron for identification. Too late now, though.
 
Okay, here is a preliminary photo. I'll put together a webpage on this puppy by the time I am done. Thanks for the pics, Don.

Worm_2feet.jpg
 
Well, good new and bad news. I now know why he got so big. Photo ID appears to make him an Amphinoids (fireworm). These worms use their proboscis to browse on coral polyps (the good news he is gone part), sponges, anemones, hydroids and ascidians.

I may have just doomed my tank by removing it. :D

Here is a link to a worm ID site:
http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/hitchworms.html
 
Come to find out my picture reading skills stink. What I have is apparently a Eunicid, not an Amphinoid. So I had an omnivorous predatory worm instead of a fireworm. There is an old Shimek article about it in Reefkeeping magazine:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-04/rs/index.php
Figure-4.jpg


Too bad I already killed it. Over in the "worm" forum people sometimes collect these guys (kind of like some do with mantis shrimp).
 
Sorry you gave it the sidewalk treatment. I might have taken him. If he ate food items other than corals. I bet my wife's students would have liked to see it.
 
Yeah, my boys really loved the thing. They even woke up mama from her nap to tell her about it. :D

I did not really have a place to keep it or else I would have offered it up. I wasn't hunting it so I did not have arrangements ready.
 
i apear to have a green one of these in my tank. he has been cleaning up my kenya tree dropings rather quickly. i noticed he took a bite out of the big guy the other day so im trying to find a way to get this guy out. hes in a rock and is super fast.
 
If it is the same thing as mine, you'll need to pull the entire rock out quickly. If he doesn't come out after that, you should dunk it in fresh water a few minute. I spent a few minutes trying to catch this thing in a bucket. I can't imagine anybody being successful grabbing one in a tank full of rocks.
 
For those of you who asked about THE WORM at the meeting a month ago, here is a bump on the old thread. :D
 
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