The predator- Eunicid worm

[usatennisfan]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I had one in my tank this size and had to remove the rock where the worm had made his den. Soon after I discovered that there were baby worm in there too and I had to start the tank over from scratch; completely drain it, get rid of the rock, new sand, the whole nine yards... Unless you just want to take out all your zoas and keep the worm in there for a species specific tank...

 

[mallorieGgator]

lol. Mine hasn't eaten any zoas. I think it is eating my cyphastrea. Are they only a zoa predator or do they also eat other corals?

 

[Opcn]

They eat other corals.

Here is a question, is there any way to inject them with something to kill them? That rotting bioload in the tank would suck, but if you found their hole, hit them with an injection of XYZ out of a syringe, then came along in a few hours and vacuumed them out with a siphon it might not be too much work. Certainly a lot easier than breaking down the whole tank I'd Imagine.

 

[mallorieGgator]

wonder if an aptasia zapper will kill them. lol. Haven't noticed anything else being eaten in the tank and the cyphastrea is fine now and growing new growth onto the rock he was in. I haven't seen him since the night I originally saw him.

 

[Briniel]

I have one of those Eunicide worms to and so far it has eaten my Xenia (brand new frag, but it has recovered completely... amazing that these things will grow back just from some left-over tissue), my Kenia tree, munched on my leather coral and my zoas. I've moved everything out of the way, I tried various traps, I took apart the reef and broke down the rocks that I had seen him in into small pieces - he's still there.
We got out lots of other worms though (yay, he had babies...). They can get really really small if they want to, you wouldn't believe it. Even the big ones - ours is at least 8 inches and that's just the part we can see if he gets out. Just taking out a rock and looking at it won't do much good because they contract if they sense danger.

I'm currently trying traps again as grabbing it with a pincher or injecting anything in it won't work because these worms react to movement and disappear before you get even close to them.

I will try building the trap with the pipe and pantyhose linked earlier and see whether that one works. The bottle trap was totally ineffective, he pulled the whole thing towards him and started munching on the seam...
I hate this thing. It's the reason why I will not use 100% LR ever again.

Oh and just because you haven't seen him or haven't noticed any more damage to corals doesn't mean it isn't there. All was quiet after we took apart the reef for a few weeks. We thought we had got rid of him, maybe in one of the stones we didn't put back (used the opportunity to rescape ) but then we saw the bitemarks on the leather coral again :uzi:

Good luck to anyone who has one of these in their tanks. If you find something that works (and does NOT include tearing down the reef, been there, done that), let me know

 

[Dana42078]

Totally took the tank apart. Once I got started one thing lead to another.....I took the opportunity to alter all the things that were bothering me. It was the first reef I had ever done. When you do something the second time...it's always better. Now that it's over I'm really happy with the out come. I'm using less rock the tank is more open, room for more coral and I have much better flow. I also set the rock up in sorta 3 islands so if I ever have to remove any I can take out one section without destroying the entire tank. Oh yeah I found two polyclads.

Cant believe you didnt take more pictures! I woulda had pics of me chopping its head off!:smokin:

Id def go the mantis route if i ever found one in my reef. :beer:

 

[Opcn]

I hear that they run for it if you inject the hole with setzer water. Perhaps someone who has one could pull out three gallons of tank water in a 5 gallon bucket and carbonate it with some dry ice, then give the whole rock a bath to see what come out??? Might need a pressure cooker to carbonate it enough.

 

[udiego]

I had one in my tank (about 30") who ate all my xenia, mushrooms, zoas, and most of the ricordias. These worms would go for anything that has a soft tissue. I tried every trick to trap him but it was of no use. Traps do not work. These worms never fully leave from the rock they live in and they have the ability to regenerate should they break in half. You may trap part of his body, but the other part will stay in the rock and grow a new head, and sooner or later you will have to deal with the same problem. The one thing that worked for me was to locate his house (rock) and give it a fresh water dip. The worm darthed out of the rock immediately. I later placed the rock back in the tank and haven't had any issues ever since.

good luck.

 

[Reefing Newbie]

If I have one of those show up in my tank ever, I would have a heart attack! I have a fear of any insect like thing, with the exception of shrimp/crabs/lobster. Those worms look like underwater centipedes. After the heart attack I would call the lfs to remove it

 

[LAKEM0NSTER]

Sorry to all the folks who have had encounters with these evil b@$tard$! I had to go take a look around my tank after reading this thread!!!!