Christmas Tree Worms?

[eliaslikesfish]

Hey all!

I was just on corals.com and saw a sweet looking christmas tree worm rock with some zoas on it as well, just curious if anyone has had experience with these guys, I had never even heard of them until today. They look pretty cool imo

 

[PotatoPig]

I’ve seen these in the wild, scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, very neat and pretty little creatures .

I’ve also seen a couple at the LFS, and online, for some reason the ones I’ve seen for sale appear to be either smaller species or don’t do as well in captivity as they do in the wild.

I’ve looked into them a few times, as they were one of the things I really wanted to include in my tank when first setting it up. They apparently like to host in/on certain SPS corals, drawing protection from the coral against either pests or predators. I’ve seen mixed reports for how they do if the SPS dies, but the consensus seems to be “not well” with limited exceptions.

So for best success you’re trying to simultaneously meet the needs of an SPS *and* filter feeder in the same location in your tank.

 

[eliaslikesfish]

I’ve seen these in the wild, scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, very neat and pretty little creatures .

I’ve also seen a couple at the LFS, and online, for some reason the ones I’ve seen for sale appear to be either smaller species or don’t do as well in captivity as they do in the wild.

I’ve looked into them a few times, they apparently like to host in/on certain SPS corals, drawing protection from the coral against either pests or predators. I’ve seen mixed reports for how they do if the SPS dies, but the consensus seems to be “not well” with limited exceptions.

So for best success you’re trying to simultaneously meet the needs of an SPS *and* filter feeder in the same location in your tank.

so that’s a no lol, oh well. thank you for the info!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

For some people who have kept them before:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/christmas-tree-worms-are-the-best-invert-change-my-mind.1013747/https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/christmas-tree-worm-tips.994578/

 

[BenThereFraggedThat]

Super late response to this BUT it looks like they still have a few. I have kept them consistently for 6 years now. I have found that they aren’t as difficult to keep as people make them out to seem. I don’t feed them any differently than just broadcast feeding coral food twice a week to the tank. I use a mix of sps and clam/soft coral sized foods. They definitely benefit from a mature system that allows them to feed more consistently on a variety of foods. The coral they reside in (usually porities or cyphastrea) are easy to keep alive too. I keep them in the middle of tank on the sand so they get the cross flow for feeding. I would highly suggest you request updated pictures of the colonies because they’ve been for sale for a while and the condition could’ve changed on the coral/inverts in the rock. I have two that I bought with no live coral and the worms have been thriving. The other has full coverage of red porities and that one is also thriving so I’d say they’re perfectly fine either way.