How to Get of Spirorbid Worms Infestation?
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JeepinReefer
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I'm fighting them in my quarantine trying to prevent them from ever getting into a display for this very reason. I have been scraping them away and its seems to be working but thankfully it's just plugs and tiles, not aquascaped rock work.
LARedstickreefer
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I’ve yet to see any sane way to get rid of these...
JeepinReefer
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I don't have a traditional display at the moment, just a quarantine with frags and clam from a former display. Cleaning the clam is the only challenge at the moment. The frags and the rest of the system seem to be free of them.
These are just one of the pests I'm working on. I think I have hydroids which I expect to be more of a challenge in the end unless I go with a chemical treatment, but that would be a problem with the clam...still figuring it out.
Update: I had given up on these. But as my tank progressed they are almost gone. Can still see some in the dark areas of my tank, but they are mostly gone from the rocks.
Ross Petersen
Well-Known Member
I’ve noticed these at the base of torch frags. Pondered scraping them off + local hydrogen peroxide with q-tips as the frags are in QT still but after reading this thread, thinking that may cause more harm than good.
Crotalus
Active Member
I added about 20 Bumblebee snails and they have greatly reduced the population in the tank. They have exploded in the overflow and in my sump. I just removed hundreds from the inside of my skimmer. I guess it's time to add more snails in those two places.
Ross Petersen
Well-Known Member
Do most tanks have these? Biodiversity help to keep them in check? Do they eventually clog up pumps and wave makers? My impression is that they are more of a visual nuisance than a functional problem.
Ross Petersen
Well-Known Member
Great question.
Curious to hear from some of the experienced reefers out there on that question and moreover their experience with spirorbid worms.
I added live rock and the population exploded, I’m just going to accept them I guess as part of the team. I haven’t changed a thing on feeding so no idea why the explosion. I did get some sort of bacterial bloom so I don’t know if that has anything to do with it.
ImaFlippinDolphin
Well-Known Member
So...I had an explosion of these simultaneously with the exit of lyngbya algae(thank you sea hare you beautiful monster you) somewhere something is leaching whatever these things feed off of, right now however I dont care...the lyngbya is gone
Vette67
Reefing since 1997
I must have literally tens of thousands of them. I mostly don’t let them bother me. They are all over my 150 gallon sump.
My asterina starfish will eat them, shell and all, clean down to the glass. But I don’t know how you’d get them to eat the worms instead of anything else. But you could always give asterinas a try...
My asterina starfish will eat them, shell and all, clean down to the glass. But I don’t know how you’d get them to eat the worms instead of anything else. But you could always give asterinas a try...
sarabaratx
New Member
My former tank maintenance guy thought he would be nice and start me a fuge and bring me some sort of plants with these on it. He told me they were fine. Now they are everywhere!! Chock that up to another reason why he is my former tank guy.
Ross Petersen
Well-Known Member
Bump: Has anyone found more clarity on spirorbid population blooms (and sometimes die-offs) in our systems? Triggers? Best bio-control measures?
I'm going to try a few different wrasses, and start to minimize feeding a bit more...
I'm not overly concerned about them... BUT when they start to cover most of my Neptune pH probe and ATO sensors... I take notice.
I'm going to try a few different wrasses, and start to minimize feeding a bit more...
I'm not overly concerned about them... BUT when they start to cover most of my Neptune pH probe and ATO sensors... I take notice.
Sarcazian
Active Member
I must have literally tens of thousands of them. I mostly don’t let them bother me. They are all over my 150 gallon sump.
My asterina starfish will eat them, shell and all, clean down to the glass. But I don’t know how you’d get them to eat the worms instead of anything else. But you could always give asterinas a try...
I would be more concerned with the flatworms in this photo?
I got here from another thread, but these just showed up in my QT tank and I saw this as a plus. I mean, it's a QT tank after all and survived Rally Pro for 5 days, 15-30% (not 3%) H2O2, and a FW dip.
I will admit that I feed the QT heavy with lots of Tommy's Phyto and reef roids.
Vette67
Reefing since 1997
I don’t worry about them. 6 line wrasse keeps them in control. They don’t hurt anything. Not all flatworms are bad.
Sarcazian
Active Member
If the 6 line eats them then that's a great free food source. Many years ago I had a dozen or so (clear ones) and seemly overnight they exploded into hundreds and they were everywhere. That was in a tank 9-10 years ago, but I seem to remember a mix of white and red flatworms... or maybe two different epic plagues.
So many that they were obstructing much of the glass to see into the tank and the water column pretty saturated as well.
I don't remember anything "bad" happening other than clean-up was a bear. At the time, I really only had softies, a nem, and a few hammer/frogspawn/etc in the tank.
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