One Tough Eunicid Worm!

WendyMc

New member
I finally got this guy out of my tank, and he lived through alot to come out in one piece! First I removed the rock he had claimed as a lair, then squirted fresh water into his hole. He didn't exit. Then I submursed the entire rock in fresh water, and swished it around for a few minutes. Nothing. So I got really scared that while pulling out his rock he had escaped to another one, and decided I needed to bash it to pieces. Using a hammer & chisel, I totally obliterated his rock finally finding him in the last small chunk, all curled up. He had been out of water for at least 10 minutes at this point, but he was alive & whole. Sorry about the yellowness in these shots, but here he is:

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He had pulled a missing frag of 8 zoa polyps into his lair & there were only 2 left on the piece, I don't know if they'll recover. Another 5 polyp frag of blue zoas mysteriously disappeared about 2 weeks before I found this guy. Over the last year, all of my Ricordea have disappeared one by one. I couldn't figure out what was going on! I thought I was the world's worst Ricordea keeper...Needless to say, I do not think they make neat pets!
 
i had one eatting my ricordia!! he wouldent leave his rck either after a 30 min dip!! I tossed the rock
 
Congrads on the hunt. I have a couple of worms similar to that but no idea if they are good guys or bad. Ron suggests keeping them in and assume they are good.

Have someone you dont like, stick the worm in some vasoline and place it under their car door handle.

Chris
 
Bleh! What did you do with him Wendy? He looks nasty. What size did he turn out to be? This really scares me when I am going to get my LR shipment in. Any tips from anyone on how to trap these guys? How about the trap Ex-terminator. Or something else? Would that work? I am a novice so I am not going to know which is good or bad. =/ Wendy gave me the link to Drs Foster and Smith for the traps. Just wondered if anyone used any of them before? Thanks Wendy! Girl, that thing is creepy!
 
They do sell traps but my understanding is they trap mostly spaghetti worms and other small bristle and segmented worms, which are benificial to the tank. The larger ones I have only heard of success from breaking part of the tank down :(
 
Hi, I'm sending it to kmk2307, he teaches invertebrate classes. I haven't mailed it yet, because I've been too busy. He's living in a heated & aerated 5 gallon bucket until I ship him out. Does anyone know if they sting you like bristle worms? How do they reproduce? Is it likely I have more than one if this guy has been in my system for more at least a year? He looks to be only about 12" long, and as big around as a pencil. Even though I hate that he ate my polyps, I feel bad for him all scared & stressed out so I haven't handled him anymore than necessary. I think I'm sick in the head, feeling bad for this worm!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8435526#post8435526 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by clsanchez77
Congrads on the hunt. I have a couple of worms similar to that but no idea if they are good guys or bad. Ron suggests keeping them in and assume they are good.

Have someone you dont like, stick the worm in some vasoline and place it under their car door handle.

Chris

Do you mean Dr. Ron Shimek? I have read in a few places that they are mostly scavengers, but you should have seen the way he had my zoa frag pulled up inside his tunnel, there's no way they would have gotten there unless he brought them...It was against gravity! I didn't catch him in the act of eating my Ricordea, but they were all within reaching distance or on his rock. Did you ever see this guy's story? http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm I feel pretty lucky after what he went through!
 
Do you mean Dr. Ron Shimek?

Yes I did mean him. His statement was that they are mostly scavengars. His article on the bristle worms discusses two species that are commonly hitchhikers in the hobby that are a threat to our corals. The problem though, is that to us, they all look the same.

I will try to find the specific article as post some quotes and images when I get home tonight.

Chris
 
Wendy, I don't believe any Eunicid polychaetes have chitinous or silica spicules like the common bristle worms do so I don't think you need to worry about it poking you. However, avoid touching it bare handed to be safe. Eunicids often reproduce in a self-destructive method called epitoky where segments bud off of hte parent, swim away, and burst releasing gametes. This worm probably did not reproduce in your tank (though its possbile another could have come in on your live rock).

Kevin
 
They do have them (chaete), but they're smaller compared to amphinomids (fire worms). This group of worms got their name from these structures - Polychaeta.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8447972#post8447972 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kmk2307
Wendy, I don't believe any Eunicid polychaetes have chitinous or silica spicules like the common bristle worms do so I don't think you need to worry about it poking you. However, avoid touching it bare handed to be safe. Eunicids often reproduce in a self-destructive method called epitoky where segments bud off of hte parent, swim away, and burst releasing gametes. This worm probably did not reproduce in your tank (though its possbile another could have come in on your live rock).

Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Are the Gametes likely to be filtered out by mechanical media? I don't run a skimmer on my Nano, but I do have mechanical & chemical Media. Also, my percula clowns are in this set up, in my old 55g they used to eat the mandarin eggs when the female released them, are the Eunicid Gametes large enough for the percs to see? I have him boxed up in my office, I just need to run to the post office to ship.
 
I just managed to get rid of my own eunice worm last week. I had ordered a frag pack of zoos and didn't want to risk it. He came in on a rock covered in hairy mushrooms so I squirted hot water in his den and ended up with him in four pieces. Mine was only about 6'' but identical to yours. Felt bad that I had to kill him but just wasn't worth the risk.
 
WendyMc,

I got the worm. Thanks so much. It isn't very active right now, probably becuse it is a little cold and the water had some ammonia build up but I'm sure it will be fine. It is acclimating to its new 40 gallon aquarium home now.

The sperm are microscopic, I am not sure about the eggs. If the worm had undergone sexual reproduction it would have died or released an obvious epitoke which would have looked like a shorter worm swimming around your tank for some time before it burst or in some other way released gametes.

Thank you so much!

Please PM me and let me know how much I owe you for shipping.

Kevin
 
No Problem Kevin, I'm glad he can be of some use. I don't like killing things. I hope he pulls through ok, that took a long time to get to you!
 
i had one of those come out of a new zoa rock i got and literally took a polyp off the rock right in front of me, after splitting the rock into several peices and displacing a pair of pistol shrimp i dint know where in it i had the 2" bast on a plate
 
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