Is this a Fire worm?

[Brad Wilkins]

I have lost a couple of sps of late, striped bear practically over night. Took a torch to my tank at night and found a swarm of about 10 worms on one my corals. So far i've removed 65 from the tank. Can anyone confirm this is a fire worm and not a bristle worm?

 

[Savage Henry]

Could be a normal bristle worm. When I catch big bristle worms that size they retracted and retracted and become shorter and thicker like that.

But, whatever, you may find the worms were feeding on dead tissue rather than eating a live coral.

 

[Brad Wilkins]

Could be a normal bristle worm. When I catch big bristle worms that size they retracted and retracted and become shorter and thicker like that.

But, whatever, you may find the worms were feeding on dead tissue rather than eating a live coral.

Its my understanding that fire worms will eat live coral while bristle worms don't.

 

[Savage Henry]

I had Eunice worms that ate corals. Sorry, I do think I had a fire worm once before, but it was different than the standard bristle worm. I remember when I had it captured it was stretched out trying to escape. When I catch the large normal bristle worms, they contract like the one you have. I leave them alone or move them to safety if I have to move rocks around.

 

[Savage Henry]

Mine was more like this: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bristle-or-fire-worm.1111169/

 

[Savage Henry]

I try to avoid it, but I have gotten many bristles on my fingers from these worms and it’s never hurt. Just needed to scrub them off.

 

[Savage Henry]

Here is one that was out tonight

 

[Brad Wilkins]

Cheers

 

[Jpep]

Here is one that was out tonight

Hate these things so much