Killer Zoa Eating Worm!!!

reefer1024

reefer1024

New member
Over the past several months I have notice my zoas being eaten by an unknown mystery creature. I have never seen the creature in action because it never comes out in the light. Ever couple of weeks I will turn on the light to find a colony of zoas will look really distressed. A few zoas on the edge of the colony will be drained of there juices and look deflated. Leading form the dead zoas is a white silk-like mucus tube that reminds me of a butterfly cocoon with small bits of sand woven into it with a hole in the middle slightly smaller than a pencil. The white tube clings tightly to the rock and of coarse this tube leads into the only rock I cant easily remove from the tank. I will destroy the tube and about a week later I will notice a tube headed to my zoas again. I have destroyed the tube many times and even waited up at night trying to find the creature' but I have never seen it.

In about a week I am going to be transferring to a larger tank and plan to get this guy and make him pay for his crimes:uzi: :blown:

The rock he lives in is covered with 5 or 6 corals I really want to keep so I am going to attempt to split the rock with a chisel and hammer and dig him out. My only problem is I have no idea what I am looking for. I can only assume it is some kind of worm based on the shape of the tube. I am hoping the tube continues inside the rock and it will lead me right to him.

If anyone has any idea what I'm looking for please let me know. I would also like advice on splitting the rock apart because I have never done it. Do you think a hammer and chisel are the right tools?

Thanks for you help
 
kalawser

kalawser

Squirt some kalawser down the hole the tube goes into. It kills everthing:) Or ice water, then what ever it is will come running out or die. Use a saringe or tubing.

Still no spell check on these forums???
 
Zooguy. Thanks for the advice. Its in a 2.5 gallon pico right now so squirting kalk might be more than my tank can handle. I also don't want to risk killing some encrusting monitis and other corals on the rock. For now I will hold your plan in reserve as plan B.

As for the spell checker I think you have to be a premium member to use it. You can download Firefox web browser for free and it has a built in spell checker. It automatically underlines any misspelled word you type in red then you just right click on the word for suggested spellings. Its a really good web browser too.
 
Joebob you snuck you post in as I was typing the last one. Thanks for the idea, but I already looked. I've looked everywhere I can think of and can't find any mention of such a creature. I think my only hope is a fellow reefer who has had the same problem.
 
thanks Delsol. I got a lot of hits when i did a google search for enucid worms I'm going to go do some reading.
 
picture of said tube?

i didnt think the 'bad worms' had calecarous tubes to live in, let alone make them..

how large is the tube? white slime out of a tube is likely a vermitid snail..and the mucus is harmless..it is just a filtering net they spit out to catch food and reel in again...it does often break off and float around the tank too...

all the white tubes in my tank are feather dusters..

break out a red filter for your flash light and take a look for what the culprit is...as most nocturnal predators cannot see red spectrum light..
 
^You misunderstand me. the tube is not made of calcium. It is soft and flexible and has small bits of sand, rock and shell incorporated into it. It reminds me of a really long butterfly cocoon. The space on the inside of the tube is as big around as a pencil and the tube itself is a little larger then a pencil. Its not a vermeted snail, The red light is a good suggestion, but I have been trying it with no luck for months.

Sorry I don't have a picture. I don't even have a camera. I know how annoying it is to try to identify things with only a written description. Thanks for trying.
 
Someone in the lps forum, I think it was, had a pix of something similar afflicting a candy cane coral, in the act, and was likewise trying to figure it. You might ask Leslie, resident expert in the Invert form: Leslie knows more about worms than anybody in RC, and while pix would help, the description might be enough.
 
Actually you've got me stumped. The tube certainly sounds like a polychaete tube but that alone isn't enough to identify what kind of worm and whether it's the culprit or not. Since I naturally think of worms as good guys (okay, I'm prejudiced :D ) I suspect that the worm is living in your rock and it just happened to exit under the zoas. When you get it out please post a pic so we can figure out what it is.

Hammer & chisel will work fine. Use a light touch at first because there may be enough natural cracks for the rock to easily split if you insert the chisel in the cracks.
 
Thanks for trying Leslie. What ever this critter is it is definitely killing my zoas and going to great effort to get to them. I have seen the tube extending across 4 inches of rock just to get to the zoas. I would estimate I have lost between 40-60 polyps in the last 6 months. I'm lucky they grow fast for me or I would have run out by now. I will be attempting this when I move to a larger tank in about a week (waiting on the builders). I'll borrow a camera so I can get you some pictures. Stay tuned and wish me luck.
 
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^ Delsol thats not a bad idea, however I have a 2.5 gallon pico reef and I think I would end up nuking the whole tank. I still plan to take out the rock and crack it open when I tranfer everything to my new tank. I'm still waiting for it, hopefully I well get it sometime this week.
 
I got it! Zoanthids everywhere rejoice.

This first picture is of the tube. If you look close you can see more of the tube below and to the right of the opening. Notice how it uses small pieces of shell a junk to make an armor on its tube.
DSC007741.jpg


I found both these worms in the rock (and a bazillion bristle worms). I'm 99.7549% sure the longer one is the culprit but I took out the other one just to be sure


Its hard to tell from the picture but the worm has 6 short tentacles/ feeler thingies on its head. They are located on the top of the head with the mouth below them. The head and mouth are NOT radially symmetrical. I hope that makes sense. Also the rear half of the worm was destroyed when we were doing battle.
DSC00794.jpg

DSC00791.jpg


Sorry for the horrible pictures. The camera I borrowed had no manual focus only the worst auto focus in the world. I could not get it to focus on anything close. I had to take these pictures from far away then zoom, crop and enlarge the pictures. Hopefully you can make out enough detail.
 
Reef2 you are correct. I just looked up some pictures of eunice worms and that is what it is for sure, But Delsol650 wins because he guessed it first. Good job:thumbsup:

now for 10 bonus points who can identify the critter next to it?
 
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