ID this worm, with an attitude

I had the same worm as Steve from Oregonreef. Mine, when I finally got him all the way out of the tank was 7 feet long. I didn't even know I had him. I started to notice softies disappearing on one side of the tank. Zoo's, mushrooms, xenia etc. In the day they would be fine, by morning... gone. Only on one side of a 6 foot tank. I got rid of every crab, starfish and snail I owned. I even removed a yellow tang. No change. I decided to do a freshwater dip on the rocks. As I went to take out the last rock, a very large piece of base rock, I saw something black, about 8" take off swimming through the water. I grabbed a net and caught it. It was a worm that was 1 1/2" wide with some really nasty fangs. I noticed that it had segmented so I took the rock out and broke it up, very carefully removing the rest of the worm. I will swear on a stack of Bibles that this worm was 7 feet long. (including the segmented piece). I was so freaked out by it that I didn't keep it. Of course, I'm regretting that now.

My opinion... if they get to a certain size, they're going to have to eat something more substantial. If corals are whats available, they're going to eat them.
 
Any luck catching it? I've just recently discovered that I got one too, cept mine's maybe bout 1/4" wide so it's a junior. Man can it see, I can't make a move w/o that worm freaking out and going back into it's hole. I'm gonna try baiting it first, if no luck after a few days, I guess it's a club soda bath for the rock.
 
NOT ALL euncid polychaetes eats corals! They make fasinating pets, and you should not remove it.

I always wanted one to observe and cherish, consider youself lucky. A neat worm is a lot more unique than bunch of corals that everyone has and can get with ease.
 
They collect corals and cement them to their burrows. They're believed to play a part in building a reef, like natural epoxy..sorta. I haven't seen mine in the past few days, but I'm sure it's still there. I'm not missing any corals, nor are any getting damaged, but I have my xenias in a growing tray right now, so we see if any coral eaters get stuck in the tray.
 
Here *was* mine: (Forgive poor pic quality :*))

mant.jpg


mant2.jpg


After i finally caught the little B***er!

tt1worm.jpg


ttworm.jpg


He ate all of my cerith snails and a couple of nassarius and had their shells stored in his rock, i also hold him responsible for my cleaner shrimp.

I tried to remove it several times but got him in the end by removing the rock he was always in and gave it a FW dip (With no success)
I then put the rock into a tub of SW and turned the heater up full without flow and covered the lid. After about 30mins i saw half of him flop out the rock.

I just left him another 5mins to die and then pulled him out of the rock with gloved hands (They're not to good to touch as you probably already know)

This one was about 6" and looked the spit of yours ;)

Goodluck with whatever you choose to do, he was too creepy for me to keep and in a nano i need to keep all the cleaners i can :S

Dan
 
Oh! My gf was wondering what happened to our snails! Also why can't you touch them? They don't have bristles, those are gills on its sides. :confused:
 
I was told that they are venomous and can cause a painful burning sensation when touched. Each pair of legs were alot longer and spiky when he was alive , they seem to have gone in when he was dead :s
 
sf05, Wow, 6" eh. I thought he would be longer. It does look to be the same size and everything as mine. I was going to link a few lengths of rigid tubing together with some flex tubing to make a long trap. It will be like a turn-style line at Disney. Now I think it can be shorter than I had planned. Thanks for sharing!
 
Hey sf05, how did your coralline algae like the jacuzzi? (90 degree water) Did they fade? I think they're pretty temperature sensitive.
 
Well let's just say that rock was covered in lots purple coraline (As you can see)
It's now completely white :(
Hopefully it won't take too long to come back though :thumbs:

No Worries 21Reefman, i wish you the best luck getting the guy out :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7178546#post7178546 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sf05
Well at least the fireworm is pretty :lol:
Cheers for the help
Click to expand...

i have at least 3 of those so called "pretty" worms. i have gottena few out, but i know i still have 2 or 3. i will be cooking my rocks or fw baths to get these guys out soon...


although i have yet to see them eat any coral, i know they killed my conch...

i use thses sleeves to put over my hand yo catch them once theya re out in the open, buut they are fast, and usually ina hole in a rock, keeping their back end in the rock, so they can quickly duck back in. ugly bast@rds
 
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