What the heck kinda worm is this?!?!?

RoyalEnchntrss

RoyalEnchntrss

New member
I saw this worm on Sunday morning in my 30G holding onto my feather duster and I turned the light on to see if it was attacking it and it went back in the rock real quick so tonight around 8 it was creeping towards my feather duster again and I got a picture... right here he's probably about 5 inches out of the rock....

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I've got one of those terribly elusive buggers in my reef...shows himself every month or so...looking like an euclid worm (I'm rather hoping not, but does look like it). I've been trying to trap him out, but no luck thus far...if you go after yours and get it out, please let me know! Good luck!
 
my bad...I'm having spelling/name issues today...that would be eunicid worm...lets all just ignore that 900 pound gorrila named "I can't spell" in the corner!
 
Urm... I just googled this worm you said about... and I DON'T want it!!!! I definately need to get it out though! It's attacking my feather duster at night and pulling its feathers off!! >:-I This is my forth feather duster in about a year so I'm wondering if this guy is the reason for alllllll of my problems! What have you tried to get him out??
 
Ive been attempting traps along the lines of bristleworm traps...but it seems the bugger never completely leaves a rock...at least not when I see it out. I've actually just "built" a bigger bristleworm trap as I have "bristle-snakes" (darn things got huge) and they simply go in the trap partially...eat the bait and bolt! I hope we both have some luck on our side soon! Let me know how it goes!
 
Thanks! My feather duster and I hope so! lol Im setting up a jar/bait trap tonight so we'll see if that works.. I'm hoping he's not long enough to be able to stay in the rock to get the food.. lol Keep your fingers crossed!! heres my poor feather duster. :(

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oh man! hopefully your duster recovers! our larger duster had it's "head" completely takn off by a seriously territorial bi-color blenny...we were absolutely devastated...then about a week later a new head appeared...it actually looks just as fabulous as before now! I feed a lot of dt's and other phyto/zoe...best of luck...I'm crossing my fingers for ya!
 
thanks! im going to try to feed tomorrow since ill probably be snowed/iced in.. he's very jumpy.. anytime i go in the tank he hides back in his tube so its hard to know that he got food.. :( I'll let you know in the morning if i get the bully!!
 
That's not an eunicid. It's in the family Oenonidae and is either the mollusc-eating Oenone fulgida or a related species. Obviously they're predators and more than your feather duster is at risk. They won't come completely out of their burrows if they can help it so the trap will have to be as far away from the rock as you can put it. If you know where the hole to his burrow is have some big forceps at hand & try to grab the body at that point once it's as far into the trap as it will go. Failing all else you'll have to pull the rock & crack it or break down the tank since the worm may actually be living in the sand under the rock.
 
i used to have one of those a few years ago..........never did find out what it was but i plucked the sucker in half twice...never did get the whole thing
I would bait him and put tongs over his hole before he would even come out.........problem is he was too long so to get the bait he never had to come out far enough to get more than a piece fo him

I just dug up a coule of old pics......realized I have gotten a little better at photography since then.....tried to clean them up but they were so bad I couldnt

w2.jpg


w1.jpg
 
Well since he was after my feather duster I moved him to my sump and the trap is set.. if he's not in there in the morning I'm going to take the rock he's in outside... theres some stuff growing on it but nothing that won't grow back.. just some zoos and a few mushrooms i think.. which i have a bunch of anyway.. I assume he's staying in this rock because its the only one I've seen him reaching out of... hopefully he IS staying in it and that will be the end of it.. haha if anything was easy I'd have a heartattack... but thank you so much for the reply. the trap is pretty far away so unless he's huge he's going to HAVE to come out.. I'll update in the morning, for now I'm off to bed!

flyguy - WOW that looks huge.. I hope mine hasn't got the chance to get that big! lol If you never got all of him whats he doing? Just reeking havoc on your tank? :(
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11910099#post11910099 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RoyalEnchntrss


flyguy - WOW that looks huge.. I hope mine hasn't got the chance to get that big! lol If you never got all of him whats he doing? Just reeking havoc on your tank? :(
Click to expand...

wanna see something funny...look closely at that first pic........you can see the other end of him bottom left in that cave......he was slender but pushing 3 feet . who knows what happened to him. that was about 5 tanks ago and the rock was dense crap so i imagine i inadvertently unloaded him on someone else.

sorry to whoever bought that rock although im poretty sure I gave it pretty cheap....... LOL

ps-that worm could swim faster than my snowflake eel at the time and would stand up on end like a cobra.
 
Last edited:
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11906741#post11906741 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RoyalEnchntrss
Heres my poor feather duster. :(
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Click to expand...

That's a great photo. If you don't mind I'd love to have a copy to use the next time I give a talk on worms on tanks.
 
Oh thank you. sure you can use it :) PM me your email and I'll send you the full version. I love my new cameras macro shot. lol The trap didn't work so I'm going to take the rock out!
 
sorry to hear you didn't get him! thanks for the correction Leslie! Dang flyguy...somehow Enchantress and I must have gotten two halves of your wom! LOL...let me know how the worm hunting goes!

Unfortunately taking the rock out is not so much an option here as my favorite kenya tree is living there and dropping babies all over it! keep me updated though!
 
Seeing that picture brought back very bad memories, i battled that worm for 3 years. Kills clams and snails, etc...

LeslieH is right, it is an Oenone fulgida. Good luck and i hope you only have one :)
 
So short of taking the rock outside and smashing it to get the worm out... do you think i could fresh water dip it??? Its a nice huge rock and i'd really hate to ruin it!
 
Only way to catch the worm in my experience is remove the rock that it is in, or wait till it is stretching out like in the picture you provided and grabbing it with tweezers.
 
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