Peanut Worm + Zooanthid = :(

[chocolateblnt]

Recently my caramel zoo's began shrinking and declining in health ... I couldn't figure out what was wrong because they were always so happy and spreading. I noticed these lateral abrasions to the polyps, almost like cuts and for a week I couldn't understand who/what was doing it. I finally took a flash light at night and saw that a peanut worm that lived next to the colony in another LR was unraveling itself through the colony and when it was using it's rake-like teeth to collect food back into the hole it was scraping the polyps. I wanted to share this discovery with the zooanthid community.

If this should be in Zooanthid Predator thread please Admin. make the necessary move, thanks!

 

[chocolateblnt]

anyone ever experience this?!

 

[Peter Eichler]

Nope, sounds a little far fetched but I guess it's possible...

 

[chocolateblnt]

I swear it was happening lol ... you can't make this stuff up. I even have a shot of the peanut worm that was doing it from a different picture. I literally saw him stretching through/in between the polyps and then scraping them on the way back... because a peanut worm collects his food that way.

 

[RokleM]

I've seen mine irritate my Xenia once or twice, but have never gone after any other coral. That is very odd... Do they have any other food in the area, or is the tank squeaky clean?

 

[chocolateblnt]

It's not that he's eating the polyps it's that he's worming through the polyps to get the food on the substrate and scraping the polyps on the way back, kinda like the picture above. He's really long ... I have seen him extend about 6-8 inches out of the rock.

 

[bluenassarius]

thats some beautiful macroalgae growing on that rock

 

[chocolateblnt]

Thanks ... some people say it grows all over there tank but mine sticks to a few colonies here and there, pretty much balanced itself out.

 

[whodah]

heya!

i personally don't think 'predator' is the correct term, but 'irritater' for sure!

check out some of the worms on this page:
http://www.zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=384

also - think you can get a shot of the peanut worm irritating the zoas?

 

[chocolateblnt]

whodah ... definitely an irritator!

I looked at that page and the best comparison I can make is to that spaghetti worm ... but imagine horizontal scratches at the base of the polyps.

I moved the colony away from the peanut worm but there are a few polyps that spread to that rock that the peanut worm lives in so if he starts irritating those I will snap a shot