Strange worm living *inside* Acropora in a friend's tank.

[ColinCBN]

Thanks for all the replies. I will certainly not be trying to take cutting shears to a friends coral unless I know without a doubt that this thing is harmful. As it is the coral is not showing any necrosis or anything, so my first reaction is to wait, unless anyone has links to more info about these things and the research is conclusive they are bad.

That being said I will also be keeping a weather eye out for any more of these guys, and I'll be checking this one out everyday for any signs of damage to the hosting coral.

Again, thanks for the advice!

 

[colotl]

I got the same critter. Looks like black eye lashes going in and out. It's been on my coral for over a year with no problems

 

[mkbtank]

Leave it.

 

[coralnut99]

You will often see encrusting montis with these guys. I guess even with harmless stuff it will boil down to personal taste, but I love watching corals with these tiny featherdusters embedded. A little loser to real life I guess.

 

[dzhuo]

My guess would be a young Paguritta gracilipes.

 

[texgv]

I have a couple of those in my tank one at the base of my montipora undata and one on a clam shell, it's a filter feeder and represents no risk.

 

[sandhog]

I have one as well.I always wonderd if it was good or bad.I also see it expelling waste.I guess now I know.

 

[slapshot]

As stated above just put a little epoxy in/over the hole. Problem solved. Not really harmful but kind of unsightly.

 

[jbaeza83]

I have one in my acro that I just got, can someone let me know if this is the same thing?

http://youtu.be/QxTjRMoGl2Y?hd=1

 

[ColinCBN]

Looks similar. So far the one in my friend's tank has not caused any problems and the coral is doing fine. Great actually, lots of new growth.

The worm has not expanded or spread at all. Just a simple fan worm I guess. The tank is very lightly fed so I don't think the worm is getting much to eat, which may be a factor in it staying smallish and not propagating.

I can't tell 100% if the one in the video is the same, but the tube looks just like my friend's. If it is the same I would not worry too much about it.

 

[jbaeza83]

Thats good to hear, I will be keeping an eye on this just in case, lol. Thank you for the quick response Colin.

 

[lolgranny]

Another solution is to place a ball of glue (2 part epoxy works great) over the opening. This normally kills the pest.

+1, just take superglue gel and put it on the hole. Problem solved. Not a big issue whatsoever so dont fret :spin2: