Eunicid worms - are they all bad? Anyone have a bad experience with this one?

[SFREEF3R]

I have at least two of this variety of what I believe to be Eunicid worms. That was my best guess using this helpful guide (please weigh in if you have a different ID!):

Worm Hitch Hikers

The identification of Worms found within live rock and live sand

chucksaddiction.thefishestate.net

Poking around in forums it looks like folks generally freak out if they found one of these, but my understanding is that there are 100's of species and most are harmless (though some can grow large and be a problem like the infamous bobbit worm).

Has anyone had an experience with one that resembles this guy?

Looks like it makes some kind of mucus, but it doesn't appear caked in sand as I've seen in some other examples. I mostly see it chomping away at the rock and haven't seen it actively eat anything of size. It's not tiny though - the exposed portion in the most fully extended picture was 1.5-2" or so (so presumably it's quite a bit larger).

 

[Goaway]

When your corals go missing and small fish. You'll know if he's bad or not.

 

[SFREEF3R]

When your corals go missing and small fish. You'll know if he's bad or not.

Sound advice

 

[Alaeriel]

Those are actually really neat looking! Personally, I'd keep him. If you're worried, banish him to the sump!

 

[SFREEF3R]

Those are actually really neat looking! Personally, I'd keep him. If you're worried, banish him to the sump!

Agree! I don't really want to remove them unless someone has a proven negative experience with this particular species.

The rocks they've made homes in aren't attached to the rest of the rock structure, so it wouldn't be too hard to extract them. But I really don't want to take the rocks out of the water (one of the best ways I've seen reported to extract them) as there are a ton sponges, tunicates, and other life forms all over that I'd be worried about harming.

I'll sit tight unless anyone can report these guys being an issue.

 

[Goaway]

Agree! I don't really want to remove them unless someone has a proven negative experience with this particular species.

The rocks they've made homes in aren't attached to the rest of the rock structure, so it wouldn't be too hard to extract them. But I really don't want to take the rocks out of the water (one of the best ways I've seen reported to extract them) as there are a ton sponges, tunicates, and other life forms all over that I'd be worried about harming.

I'll sit tight unless anyone can report these guys being an issue.

There's a lot of worms in the eunicid family. The only real answer is for you to observe the animals, take note of whatever disappears without a trace. How often it happens. You can also use foods to see what attracts the animals interest, frozen squid - shrimp - nori.
The eunicid I had, was less than 2 feet in length and ate 3/4 of my florida ricordea mushroom. I recovered the mushroom from inside the rock of the beast. I was shocked to see it was still alive. All I can say, as they grow. Their diets seems to change. The worm hiding in my rock did no harm at all, until recently. It was a fight to remove the worm. I had to break the rock it was living in.

 

[SFREEF3R]

Ok so I think it claimed its first victim hahaha

I've been watching this patch of what I *think* are colonial tunicates grow out over the past several weeks. Overnight they disappeared - totally mowed down. Pretty sure they'll grow back, but a bummer nonetheless.

 

[SFREEF3R]

There's a lot of worms in the eunicid family. The only real answer is for you to observe the animals, take note of whatever disappears without a trace. How often it happens. You can also use foods to see what attracts the animals interest, frozen squid - shrimp - nori.
The eunicid I had, was less than 2 feet in length and ate 3/4 of my florida ricordea mushroom. I recovered the mushroom from inside the rock of the beast. I was shocked to see it was still alive. All I can say, as they grow. Their diets seems to change. The worm hiding in my rock did no harm at all, until recently. It was a fight to remove the worm. I had to break the rock it was living in.

Do you have any pics of yours? Look anything like this one?

 

[TheDragonsReef]

I would seperate him and keep him in another tank or move to the sump/refugium if you have one.


Also if youre near pa or would be willing to ship id gladly pay for him and make him a personal tank.

 

[Goaway]

Do you have any pics of yours? Look anything like this one?

I never could get a good picture of it in the water.

 

[Alaeriel]

If you do want to remove the rock without damaging the sponges, put a small bucket (we have a dedicated old ice cream bucket) into the tank and put the rock in that so you can remove the whole thing and still keep it underwater

 

[SFREEF3R]

I never could get a good picture of it in the water.

Wow! Nearly 2 feet? Was it brown in color like that when it was alive?

Interesting to hear how their diets can change over time. I'm going to monitor for now, but will keep an eye on it.

 

[Goaway]

Wow! Nearly 2 feet? Was it brown in color like that when it was alive?

Interesting to hear how their diets can change over time. I'm going to monitor for now, but will keep an eye on it.

That was alive. I threw it in the garbage can. It really ticked me off.

My mushroom looked like this, nice 4 mouths.

To this.



I am still unhappy even chopping that worm up into pieces.
Here it is, alive in the water before I decided to go after it.

That was the best picture I could get. These worms move fast.

 

[ReefNewbie12]

Daaang! That is a real neat worm! Any clue what the species is?

 

[Tired]

Oh, he's so cool! Look at that lovely fellow.

You should probably try to trap him out, since he's eaten a coral-like organism. Or risk it, if nothing valuable is near him.

 

[ReefNewbie12]

To be fair “coral-like organism” doesn’t very well encompass a tunicate, and most sessile-organism eating animals on the reef would probably agree. Elsewise we’d be seeing zoa spiders eating yellow polyps or montipora nudibranchs attacking stylos!

 

[Vincent100]

Hi
I work in a Lfs and have found 3 of them in the last 6 months and boy can they move fast .
All 3 had a white band near their heads but not sure on what type they are

I’ve not noticed any damage to any of the stock that was in their tanks
next one I find is going into one of the sumps for a grow out ...... just need to keep it from the boss as he hates em lol

 

[Atul]

Get rid of it. I had one that ate thousands of dollars of coral. It was 6 feet long.

 

[SFREEF3R]

A little bit delayed, but here's an update:

Back in October I noticed that a patch of yellow Zoas I had in proximity to the worm had rapidly reduced in size. Up until that point it had been expanding rapidly. Suspicious, I took a look after dark with my red light and lo and behold the worm was aggressively munching on them.

Time to get out the worm out.

The piece of rock where the worm resided was covered with multiple species of sponge, corals, and other life so I really wanted to minimize the time out of the water.

Here's a picture of the worm "home" and the Zoa it munched on:

 

[SFREEF3R]

I found reference to a method using club soda to flush out the worm and decided to give that a try.

I suspended the rock over a grate/tupperware with tank water and inserted a syringe into the hole it resided in and flushed with club soda. Almost immidiately it came wriggling out of its hole.