Any Tips for Oenone Fulgida Removal?

[bivalvebuddy]

Hey everyone,

I've been battling what I believe to be a gnarly Oenone fulgida outbreak for a few months now in one of my tanks.

I've managed to catch and remove probably close to a hundred decent-sized ones with manual removal. The smaller ones are the worst. They're too tiny to be able to effectively remove at scale. These evil things have eaten their way through hundreds of dollars in livestock over the last few months.

Thought maybe a cone snail would solve the problem, but I've had no luck trying to source one.

Does anyone have any other ideas? I'm wondering if it's time to rip everything out and start over

 

[rayadog]

100! that’s incredible. Dumb question but, definitely not bristleworms found guilty by association? But dang, if they’re happy they’re happy lol. Catching that many worms already is impressive, is there anything else in the tank that would suffer from invert chemical treatments? If so… might be a get new rock kinda day. Or fish

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

I'm not sure what all is in your tank, but there is a nuclear option?

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/1...tment-for-coral-boring-spionid-worms.1066191/

 

[Fish Fan]

I wonder if Arrow crabs would eat them? They eat bristle worms.

 

[RobynR]

Coral banded or peppermint shrimp?

Wrasse? Or other worm eating fish?

 

[rayadog]

Yea depending on size of worms and tank I thought fish would be most effective non nuclear

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

I wonder if Arrow crabs would eat them? They eat bristle worms.

I think the toxic slime they create would probably be an issue?

 

[Fish Fan]

I think the toxic slime they create would probably be an issue?

Could well be, I was just throwing out an idea

 

[rayadog]

From my limited years as a child, toxic slime seemed pretty cool. Guess it’s not the “good” toxic

 

[bivalvebuddy]

100! that’s incredible. Dumb question but, definitely not bristleworms found guilty by association? But dang, if they’re happy they’re happy lol. Catching that many worms already is impressive, is there anything else in the tank that would suffer from invert chemical treatments? If so… might be a get new rock kinda day. Or fish

I wish they were bristles. I've got bristles too, but my CBS eats them like a snack. Won't touch these though.

They look like typical Fulgidas. Orange segmented body, tons of tiny little legs, black dots for eyes, and huge black teeth that try to bite back when I remove them. They haunt my nightmares lol.

 

[bivalvebuddy]

Thanks everyone for the ideas!

It looks like the worst of it is in the sand bed.

I'm thinking of just fully removing my sandbed and starting over to cull as much as I can there. I've isolated the rocks that still have slime tubes. Might just end up nuking those with ivermectin to be safe and working through the rocks in sections to try and avoid a mini-cycle. I can rehouse inverts and corals in the meantime.

I'll share updates as I have them, and try to snag a pic of one of these next time I rip a few out to share. I'm convinced they're fulgidas, but I'm hoping that I'm wrong.

 

[rayadog]

Good luck! Idk what your stand is like but I wonder if you can peak up at them in the sand bend from below; won’t do you any good. Just wondering.

I’m torn between not wanting to live this nightmare with you and sorta wanting to see any pics you get.

 

[bivalvebuddy]

It's been a minute since my last update. Apologies for the delay. Life keeps getting in the way lol.

I kept toying with the idea of ivermectin treatment, but was always a bit too hesitant to pull the trigger on it. I kept up manual removal of the bigger ones for a while. At one point, I started pulling rock and separating it when I found the tubes of one. I've attached some pics of the worms in the sandbed, their slime tubes, and a segment of a big one I pulled from a rock. Real nasty stuff for a 15-gal tank.

The stars aligned recently when I hit up my LFS for a couple of pitho crabs to help with some bubble algae in a different tank. Turns out my LFS got a couple of cone snails in a batch of Halloween hermits by mistake. I immediately snagged one and brought it home. I've been watching it closely since we weren't sure of the species. Sure enough, within the first day, it started eating its way through my worm issue. Every day I wake up, there are fewer and fewer of them.