How I caught a Bobbit/eunicid worm

[SandNRocks]

Hi all,

I had what I think was a baby bobbit worm in my tank and I wanted to share how I caught him. Maybe it can help someone else catch a pest in their tank. It seemed pretty effective to me and i got him in like 5 seconds on my first go.

I noticed him crawling around in the front of my tank for like 3 days before i tried to get him and waited until he was in a place somewhat reachable.

What i did was pretty simple. I put a small drop of gel superglue on the end of a zip-tie and slowly reached in there and stuck it to him. He got stuck immediately and i pulled him out. It kind of looked like a chameleons tongue when it catches a bug. If youre quick, the superglue will just stick to the worm and wont have time to stick to the rock or anything else.

My thinking was that even if i didnt get him, id hopefully get some glue on him to slow him down or if he went into a hole, i could seal it shut. Not sure if anyone has ever done this before but it worked great and could definitely be used for a bunch of pests.

PS I also use this method for aiptasia. Its REALLY effective for killing aiptasia amongst zoanthids without bothering the polyps at all.

Maybe some of this is helpful,
Thanks everybody

 

[ryanjohn1]

Well done. Good idea too!

 

[taricha]

lol what? Nicely done.
Give us a demo of your aiptasia super glue method.

 

[SandNRocks]

lol what? Nicely done.
Give us a demo of your aiptasia super glue method.

Thanks. Fresh out of aiptasia unfortunately but ill explain how i do it.

heres an example colony i found online:

heres what i use:

Ill put a really small drop on the end of the little zip-tie like this:

Before i do anything, I pay attention to where the aiptasia is and Ill wave something around near the zoas to get them to close up. Alot of the time the aiptasia stays open but if not i try to remember where it was.

I carefully reach in and lightly dab the superglue in the spot the aiptasia was around the polyps. It retracts and gets sealed shut. I can usually get in there really good and once will suffice. But after doing it a bunch of times, i prefer to use less glue and hit it 2-3 times if necessary.

I used to use a big drop of glue and would get it all over the zoanthids but they never seemed to mind much. Less glue definitely bothers them less though and doesnt look as bad haha

heres a photo of a small little frag that had like 8 aiptasia and you can see how much glue ive used on the poor little guys. Theyre now out better than they have been and have filled in all the spots that had aiptasia.

not the best example but you can see all of the “grey” around the polyps where ive basically covered the whole frag plug with glue. Some of these zoanthids have been like 50% covered in glue and wiggled their way out so it didnt seem to really bother them too bad. Anyways, hope that helps and wasnt too confusing.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Very intuitive way to attack a eunicid/bobbit.

 

[srobertb]

Hi all,

I had what I think was a baby bobbit worm in my tank and I wanted to share how I caught him. Maybe it can help someone else catch a pest in their tank. It seemed pretty effective to me and i got him in like 5 seconds on my first go.

I noticed him crawling around in the front of my tank for like 3 days before i tried to get him and waited until he was in a place somewhat reachable.

What i did was pretty simple. I put a small drop of gel superglue on the end of a zip-tie and slowly reached in there and stuck it to him. He got stuck immediately and i pulled him out. It kind of looked like a chameleons tongue when it catches a bug. If youre quick, the superglue will just stick to the worm and wont have time to stick to the rock or anything else.

My thinking was that even if i didnt get him, id hopefully get some glue on him to slow him down or if he went into a hole, i could seal it shut. Not sure if anyone has ever done this before but it worked great and could definitely be used for a bunch of pests.

PS I also use this method for aiptasia. Its REALLY effective for killing aiptasia amongst zoanthids without bothering the polyps at all.

Maybe some of this is helpful,
Thanks everybody

I had one living in a BC29 for some amount of time. Possibly a year or two. Every night a little frag of zoas would be ripped off and place over a small hole in the rock work. It never dawned on me who or what could be moving it. Then I lost 2 fish. So…I set up a time lapse camera overnight and was terrified when I saw a massive Eunice worm pop its head up in the witching hour to hunt.
I had to tear down the entire tank to get him out. Even then I had to battle it with a pair of tongs. I swear I heard it curse my name when I ripped it in half (and both halves then tried to kill me). I tried the baited PVC Tube and soda bottle with spikes but neither worked. My worm was 1-2 ft long and very thick. I’m not sure the glue method would work in my case but it’s a clever idea. I imagine you could use it on crabs too.

 

[taricha]

I'm glad I've never had to do a Captain Ahab / Moby Dick reenactment like that in my tank.

So…I set up a time lapse camera overnight and was terrified when I saw a massive Eunice worm pop its head up in the witching hour to hunt.
I had to tear down the entire tank to get him out. Even then I had to battle it with a pair of tongs. I swear I heard it curse my name when I ripped it in half (and both halves then tried to kill me). I tried the baited PVC Tube and soda bottle with spikes but neither worked. My worm was 1-2 ft long and very thick.

 

[srobertb]

I'm glad I've never had to do a Captain Ahab / Moby Dick reenactment like that in my tank.

It’s funny because you look at a crocodile and it sizes you up as a meal. While swimming with sharks it looks with indifference; as if you don’t even register really. Tigers and Lions watch you as if you’re prey as they stalk you.

It is rare to find a creature that appears to have disdain and hatred for you. It’s jarring to have something so small attack you. Red headed centipedes, mantis shrimp, and Eunice worms are all examples that come to my mind. They will come at you knowing dang well you’re hundreds of times their size. It’s like they don’t care if they live or die, they just want to hurt you.

I hate hate hate all of them.