eunicid worm - signs, symptoms, how do you know if you have one?

[CRW Reefer]

Anyone ever personally seen a eunicid worm?

Reason I ask is I sorta, kinda, maybe think I might have one lol. While staring at my tank last night observed a zoa colony I had looking terrible and decided to dip it to make sure there wasnt any pests on it that might be bugging it. Well I found a few 1/4" diameter sand tubes on it that seemed a bit odd as I have never seen them before. Now these are not tube worms or vermetid snails which I have seen plenty of times, as these literally were a few inches long and 1/4" diameter tubes of sand going up the rock to the zoas. Anyway decoded to dip the whole rock and then eventually tossed zoas and the fist sized rock the tubes were on, in hopes of eradicating what ever the heck it was that created these things.

So...ill be watching for anything else weird in next few weeks but wanted to see if anyone had ever seen a eunicid worm in their tank before, If you have, could you please post up some signs, symptoms, how do you know if you have one?

 

[kdino1]

i have had 2 worms on two seperate tanks in the past 4 or so years. the first one i just left alone because when i discovered what i had, it was too late and he had already created an elaborate series of tubes throughout my rockwork. I did see him at night with help of a red flashlight...ugly sucker. The tell tale sign is a "webbing" of sorts that create tubes. They are white and translucent almost look like a dense spiderweb and they usually connect one rock to another or a couple others. The second time i encountered the worm was this past week, I saw the tube and took the rock out, luckily it was a small rock at the base with othing on it. put it in a bucket and let it dry out. sure enough a worm about 6" long and about 1/4" thick was at the bottom of the bucket. the first worm however, after being in my tank for over a year was about 3 feet long and about as thick as a sharpie. yum!

 

[CRW Reefer]

Ya i def have the tubes I think...The ones one the rock I took out was about 3"+ long and about .5" OD with a 1/4" ID hole running the length. I have ordered a red led flash light but might go all out and get a red led strip to hunt and look out for this possible creature more easily (not sure how much is to much red light - as to not spoke them and keep them from coming out).

Thank you for posting up your experience for sure.

 

[CRW Reefer]

Anyone or am I alone in this lol

 

[neuwave]

All depends. I had a small one that I sealed up with epoxy. Thin as a piece of angel hair spaghetti but 3 inches long. Didn't want to take the chance of it getting bigger. They are cool pets if you have a separate tank for them. Mr. Microscope has one. Mine had pinchers so I didn't want to take any chances with my reef. It tried to get a couple ornamental shrimp. That was when I took action. Mine was a smaller version of this bobbit worm. Much much smaller. Lol

Bobbit Worm??????????? ?????????????? - YouTube

 

[Finnaddict]

I had one and it looked like this. Mine was about 7' when he stretched out across the tank. He chewed all the tips off all my acros.

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

I had a 3 footer eat a few thouasnd dollars of coral clam nem and fish. I never saw it, and knew which rock it lived in. Eventually the worm will start dragging frags back to its den.

 

[kdino1]

I had a 3 footer eat a few thouasnd dollars of coral clam nem and fish. I never saw it, and knew which rock it lived in. Eventually the worm will start dragging frags back to its den.

+1 this happened a lot with the first one i had

 

[zesty]

I had a 3 footer eat a few thouasnd dollars of coral clam nem and fish. I never saw it, and knew which rock it lived in. Eventually the worm will start dragging frags back to its den.

I posted your thread with your winning picture in a different thread here! The look of victory is a feeling I look forward to someday! :xd:

 

[VB68]

Caught this one in my tank about a year or so ago.

 

[CRW Reefer]

Caught this one in my tank about a year or so ago.

Wow look at the intricacy and colors on that thing!!!! How did you catch that one?

 

[VB68]

Isolated it on one side of the tank with a piece of plexiglass. Started taking the rest of the rock out on the side it was on. I knew which rock it was under. Then did the sand, one scoop at a time. Finally cornered it.