Coral Boring Spionid Worms

[Zarekk]

So I just recently found out that I had coral boring spionid worms in my sunset montipora. I recived it with one already in it, not knowing what it was and assumed it was a tentacle from the monti itself..

Upon more research and at least 1.5 months in. Ive come to find out it was a coral boring spionid worm and can be very harmful to the coral/corals.

The 2 feelers/tentacles from the worm:

I did further research and found some people have had luck with ivermectin a dewormer for animals.

I was willing to give it a try BUT was not willing to put it in my tank like others have before me.
I headed over to my local tractor supply and found this.

I feel ive done enough research to be comfortable using it as a DIP.

I took the montipora out and placed it in 500ml of DT water and added 4 drops initially.

After 10minutes the worms started to let out their two feelers/tentacles, unphased.
So I spot dosed a very small amount straight at them (there were 2 of them) and they immediately retracted their feelers.

I then started to agitate the water to mix the ivermectin and to avoid possibly harming the coral with a concentrated dose right on top of it.

Left the container alone for another 50 minutes for a total of 1 hour soak time.

I treated it like a coral dip and had 2 extra containers with DT (display tank) water and took the monti out of the medicated dip to have it rinse off and put into QT. The next morning.

The worms dont seem to be present.. at least not in good condition. Or alive.

I would conclude that the dip has worked and has not harmed the montipora.

I will continue to monitor for the worms and health of the coral throughout the week.

Medication Start: 7/23/2025

Thanks for reading!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Thanks for sharing! This can be helpful for a lot of people!

 

[Zarekk]

Thanks for sharing! This can be helpful for a lot of people!

Thanks! Thats is the goal

 

[Pat's Reef]

So I just recently found out that I had coral boring spionid worms in my sunset montipora. I recived it with one already in it, not knowing what it was and assumed it was a tentacle from the monti itself..

Upon more research and at least 1.5 months in. Ive come to find out it was a coral boring spionid worm and can be very harmful to the coral/corals.

The 2 feelers/tentacles from the worm:

I did further research and found some people have had luck with ivermectin a dewormer for animals.

I was willing to give it a try BUT was not willing to put it in my tank like others have before me.
I headed over to my local tractor supply and found this.

I feel ive done enough research to be comfortable using it as a DIP.

I took the montipora out and placed it in 500ml of DT water and added 4 drops initially.

After 10minutes the worms started to let out their two feelers/tentacles, unphased.
So I spot dosed a very small amount straight at them (there were 2 of them) and they immediately retracted their feelers.

I then started to agitate the water to mix the ivermectin and to avoid possibly harming the coral with a concentrated dose right on top of it.

Left the container alone for another 50 minutes for a total of 1 hour soak time.

I treated it like a coral dip and had 2 extra containers with DT (display tank) water and took the monti out of the medicated dip to have it rinse off and put into QT. The next morning.

The worms dont seem to be present.. at least not in good condition. Or alive.

I would conclude that the dip has worked and has not harmed the montipora.

I will continue to monitor for the worms and health of the coral throughout the week.

Medication Start: 7/23/2025

Thanks for reading!

This does seem to be an effective and safe treatment for worms, and is helpful information for sure. I’m not sure on the ID. It appears to be a hairworm species to me. They are fairly common two tentacled tubeworm species. Though most keep the tubes hidden in a hole in the rock or even an empty coral socket. They are generally harmless and usually coexist in a loose commensal relationship with the coral. It just seems unusually very large for a Spirorbid species, and they are feather tentacled worms. Look into the many hairworm species, because this really looks like the worm pictured.

 

[Dburr1014]

Ah yes Ivermectin.

If you have read those other couple of threads, proceed with caution!
It does have a half life of 200+ days. With that basically means is anything that's wet will carry some of the medication for 200+ days.
If you feel this is the only Coral with the worms, i strongly encourage you to do at least a couple tank water dips before placing back into the system. That should rinse off most of the medication but mind you it may still be in the rock as it will be soaked in it. It would probably be better do a tank water dip overnight a couple of times.
For everyone else, do not do this to your system. This is strictly a dip, it will wreak havoc if you dose this to your system and most likely kill everything.

 

[Zarekk]

So I just recently found out that I had coral boring spionid worms in my sunset montipora. I recived it with one already in it, not knowing what it was and assumed it was a tentacle from the monti itself..

Upon more research and at least 1.5 months in. Ive come to find out it was a coral boring spionid worm and can be very harmful to the coral/corals.

The 2 feelers/tentacles from the worm:

I did further research and found some people have had luck with ivermectin a dewormer for animals.

I was willing to give it a try BUT was not willing to put it in my tank like others have before me.
I headed over to my local tractor supply and found this.

I feel ive done enough research to be comfortable using it as a DIP.

I took the montipora out and placed it in 500ml of DT water and added 4 drops initially.

After 10minutes the worms started to let out their two feelers/tentacles, unphased.
So I spot dosed a very small amount straight at them (there were 2 of them) and they immediately retracted their feelers.

I then started to agitate the water to mix the ivermectin and to avoid possibly harming the coral with a concentrated dose right on top of it.

Left the container alone for another 50 minutes for a total of 1 hour soak time.

I treated it like a coral dip and had 2 extra containers with DT (display tank) water and took the monti out of the medicated dip to have it rinse off and put into QT. The next morning.

The worms dont seem to be present.. at least not in good condition. Or alive.

I would conclude that the dip has worked and has not harmed the montipora.

I will continue to monitor for the worms and health of the coral throughout the week.

Medication Start: 7/23/2025

Thanks for reading!

This does seem to be an effective and safe treatment for worms, and is helpful information for sure. I’m not sure on the ID. It appears to be a hairworm species to me. They are fairly common two tentacled tubeworm species. Though most keep the tubes hidden in a hole in the rock or even an empty coral socket. They are generally harmless and usually coexist in a loose commensal relationship with the coral. It just seems unusually very large for a Spirorbid species, and they are feather tentacled worms. Look into the many hairworm species, because this really looks like the worm pictured.

Its a spionid worm not spriorbid. Very similar sounding but spionids can affect coral growth and possibly kill it.

 

[Zarekk]

UPDATE:: A week an a half after treatment. The sunset montipora is still doing great. Its coloring up more and attached is the dead worm protruding out of the hole its made on the monti.

 

[JFC1005]

UPDATE:: A week an a half after treatment. The sunset montipora is still doing great. Its coloring up more and attached is the dead worm protruding out of the hole its made on the monti.

Would this dip treatment work on LPS? Goniopora to be precise.

 

[Dburr1014]

Would this dip treatment work on LPS? Goniopora to be precise.

I have done dips on hammers, candy canes, blatos, ect. All good. I don't own gonnis.

 

[Featherweight]

Interesting. Some of my battlecorals have antenae but I didn't really think it an issue as they are also growing

 

[Battlecorals Verified Sponsor]

Interesting. Some of my battlecorals have antenae but I didn't really think it an issue as they are also growing

Yeah, I hear you man. I feel like these things pop up from time to time and I guess I've never really had any tremendous issues with them harming or doing any real damage in the long run. I never really considered them a high threat level coral pest.

I think they're more prevalent than people may realize because they're not really a Coral specific critter. Compared to AEFW's for example. They can live and travel on live rock and snails just about anything really. Definitely easy to kill with ivermectin though. I was kind of working with a guy behind the scenes who had done a lot of testing with ivermectin on these a couple years ago.

But I also think this is one of those critters that the longer you're in the hobby it's just inevitable that you're going to find these in your tank at some point. Like vermatids and stuff like this.

 

[Zarekk]

UPDATE:: A week an a half after treatment. The sunset montipora is still doing great. Its coloring up more and attached is the dead worm protruding out of the hole its made on the monti.

Would this dip treatment work on LPS? Goniopora to be precise.

As long as your careful with dosage it wont hurt the goni. Treat it like a normal dip. Just have to be accurate with the dosage.

 

[skey44]

Yeah, I hear you man. I feel like these things pop up from time to time and I guess I've never really had any tremendous issues with them harming or doing any real damage in the long run. I never really considered them a high threat level coral pest.

I think they're more prevalent than people may realize because they're not really a Coral specific critter. Compared to AEFW's for example. They can live and travel on live rock and snails just about anything really. Definitely easy to kill with ivermectin though. I was kind of working with a guy behind the scenes who had done a lot of testing with ivermectin on these a couple years ago.

But I also think this is one of those critters that the longer you're in the hobby it's just inevitable that you're going to find these in your tank at some point. Like vermatids and stuff like this.

I personally agree. I have a couple on my colliderscope frag, bought the dip and returned it due to cost and effort to kill something that doesn’t appear to be rapidly spreading or hurting the coral. They seem like harmless reef life to me at this point. Longer you’re in the hobby the more things like this you pickup, and the less aggressive you get with treating harmless critters like this. Coral shows no ill effects and continues to grow and encrust just fine.

 

[PeterErc]

There’s research papers on spionid worms in abalone’s . I read through some of them looking for the short answer with no success.

If it’s something your interested do a google search for spionid abalone

 

[Zarekk]

So I bought some coral last week and one of the corals, a Dragon Soul Goniastrea has a worm. I was kinda upset but i got it for a good price and know how to treat with success. So ill be doing another treatment.
Here are pics of the coral and the damage these worms can “possibly” do.