Spawning fireworm (see film)

[mastou]

I have a lot of fireworms in my aquarium and recently they spawned. It was an amazing look, and it turned my aquarium totally cloudy. I was a bit slow to find my camera but managed to film one worm "in the act"

I was amazed to see that also the worms in my refugium (light on 24/7 !) spawned so some how they could synchronize it?

So far it doesn’t seem to cause any problems and some of my corals clearly tried to get the most of it by extending their polyps, but are there anybody who have tried the same or heard about it?

/Magnus

 

[graveyardworm]

Pretty cool, I've heard of it happening , but never witnessed it.

 

[mastou]

Have you also heard if there is any risk associated with it? Can it do any damage?
It didn't seem like my fish liked it, they tried to hide whenever a worm sprayed egg out.

/Magnus

 

[matter1331]

I've watched all of the bristleworms in a 240 at the LFS I worked at spawn simultaneously and there didn't seem to be any adverse effects. Of course it was a FO tank with a huge skimmer on it.

 

[graveyardworm]

Coral, and other filter feeder food.

 

[tpdpercula]

Thats the coolist video I have ever seen.

 

[mastou]

My concern was also that in the ocean around Denmark bristleworms also spawn simultaneously, I think it is around March, (= nice trout fishing ), however after spawning many of the bristleworms can be found dead.

I haven't seen any dead fireworms yet, so maybe this is not the case with fireworms?

/Magnus

 

[mastou]

I think I may have discovered what made them spawn, I had changed the heater to a smaller one (actually too small), which resulted in a drop in temperature when the HQI turned off.
Can this be the cause, and by the way they were spawning 2-3 times over a couple of weeks, but it didn't cause any change in water quality

/Magnus

 

[graveyardworm]

Temperature swing is a common cue for some invertebrates to spawn.

 

[LeslieH]

Worms have a lot of different spawning strategies. Some swim up into the water column, some stay on the bottom. Some spawn once in mass aggregations then die (what Mastou saw in Denmark), others can spawn repeatedly throughout their lives. The common amphinomids found in reef tanks spawn repeatedly. When one worm starts spewing its eggs/sperm into the water the other worms in the tank respond by doing the same which makes sense. Since the gametes are floating in the water they're easy food for predators. If the worms all spawn at the same time each individual gamete has a greater chance of survival.

 

[reefgrief]

Well, that video was an eye opener..I thought worms were egg layers, just goes to show you, that what you learn in Bio class .. wont always be generally applicable.

Thanks for taking the time to film it !

 

[romunov]

To be fair, "worm" is a pretty pretty broad term.

 

[ian337]

Re: Spawning fireworm (see film)

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9367466#post9367466 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mastou
I have a lot of fireworms in my aquarium and recently they spawned.

See my post here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1110298


I took a pic of one spraying. The cloud is seen on the left in the pic. Your video looks just like what my bristleworms were doing. And what was weird to me is, i had never seen them before, they all came out, did the pink cloud action, and then eventually all crawled back into the rock. I had no idea i had bristleworms for the 9 months or so i had the live rock going. They must have been sneaking around at night.

 

[dragonforce]

I love fireworms and bristles, IMO, if you have a bunch of fatties your aquarium is doing great

 

[mastou]

Re: Re: Spawning fireworm (see film)

Re: Re: Spawning fireworm (see film)

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9842242#post9842242 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ian337
See my post here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1110298


I took a pic of one spraying. The cloud is seen on the left in the pic. Your video looks just like what my bristleworms were doing. And what was weird to me is, i had never seen them before, they all came out, did the pink cloud action, and then eventually all crawled back into the rock. I had no idea i had bristleworms for the 9 months or so i had the live rock going. They must have been sneaking around at night.

My fireworms comes out of the rocks when I feed, so they are easy to spot

Have you also changed something in your setup, before they started to spawn?

/Magnus

 

[mastou]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9844429#post9844429 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dragonforce
I love fireworms and bristles, IMO, if you have a bunch of fatties your aquarium is doing great

I totally agree, as long as it is not the coral eating worms

/Magnus