Medusa worm - advice please!

[teemee]

Ran into my LFS this morning to pick up some food, and was v. surprised to find a medusa worm and its commensal emperor shrimp for sale.
Have left a deposit on them, but... I need some advice, please!
there seems to be conflicting information about these worms - some say they are great for sifting through detritus... and then there are the accounts of their tanks being 'nuked' after getting these cucumbers.
It looks absolutely fine right now - am meant to collect on thursday, and would then do a 2 hour-ish very slow acclimation.
am going to double post this in a reef section, but please if you have any experience with either medusa worms, or emperor shrimp, please chime in and let me know what you think!

 

[mscarpena]

I got rid of mine due to the fact that they can release toxins. Just not worth the risk.

 

[teemee]

Did it have a comensal? And if so, what did the comensal do?
I'm wondering if I get it, could I try to coax the shrimp to switch to a nudibranch or snail??

 

[mscarpena]

It did not have a shrimp with it. I would imagine there is a reason they live together, but I do not know what it is. Just like a pistol shrimp and a angel fish will not live together I would except that the shrimp will not go to the nudi or sail. Also nudi are very short lived in most cases <1year. Find out if the shrimp can live without the medussa worm.

Check this out. It seems they can live on all sorts of things.
http://underwaterphotos.com/article4.htm
Just google search emperor shrimp and lots of stuff comes up. Neat shrimp. Just be sure its the same shrimp as you LFS has. A lot of time they are miss ID'd.

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

I've tried emperor shrimp a few times now without a medusa worm as I don't want to have my tank nuked. I was able to get the shrimp to go on a turbo snail for a day or two but ultimately they leave the snail and disappear/die every time. Each time they were in a seahorse tank with one seahorse, one pipefish, and a spotted mandarin so nothing would eat them but they still died. Must not be giving them something they need.

In april after my vacation I will be home long enough to care for a 2g picotope (daily water changes) which I will try to care for a pair of these shrimp in and nothing else as I don't want to kill anymore in my 29g since they just never seem to live.