Unknown Worms Living On Zoa Corals!

CrazyDuck959 · Mar 23, 2023

Hello Everyone,

So I am currently concerned but not too concerned about these weird pests that I have found living on my Zoa Coral. I am not sure exactly what they are but I would like to figure that out sooner then later. This way I can take care of it if needed.

So far from what I have observed they are a small worm like pest that can stretch from about 1 inch to 3 - 4 inches and they are incredibly fast at retracting. I have attempted to catch them but not succeeded. They seem to have a width of around a millimeter. They are very tiny. But I have noticed I think around 4 of them just appear on my coral. They seem to try to almost enter the Zoa or bite at the Zoa. From my view they seem aggressive towards my corals. They are white when retracted but clear when stretched out. They do not like light and retract as soon as I turn the lights on. I have a ton of pictures I will be posting. And if needed tomorrow I can post a video.

I really am just looking for advice to keep my tank safe. If I should need to remove them what would be the best way to remove them? How can I make sure they don’t spread and what can I do to keep this from happening again?

(I do dip my corals before I put them in the tank).

blaxsun · Mar 23, 2023

Could be really tiny bristleworms - can't really tell (sorry).

Rick's Reviews · Mar 23, 2023

Are they actively moving around? Could you use a siphon to suck them up and out of aquriam, if you seen them here (your pictures) I would assume there's more (better pictures would help identify)

CrazyDuck959 · Mar 23, 2023

blaxsun said:
Could be really tiny bristleworms - can't really tell (sorry).

Thank you for the response, but I can confirm they are not bristle worms which is another reason why I don’t know what they are. Cause I have had to remove 1 bristle worm and they look way different.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 23, 2023

CrazyDuck959 said:
Hello Everyone,

So I am currently concerned but not too concerned about these weird pests that I have found living on my Zoa Coral. I am not sure exactly what they are but I would like to figure that out sooner then later. This way I can take care of it if needed.

So far from what I have observed they are a small worm like pest that can stretch from about 1 inch to 3 - 4 inches and they are incredibly fast at retracting. I have attempted to catch them but not succeeded. They seem to have a width of around a millimeter. They are very tiny. But I have noticed I think around 4 of them just appear on my coral. They seem to try to almost enter the Zoa or bite at the Zoa. From my view they seem aggressive towards my corals. They are white when retracted but clear when stretched out. They do not like light and retract as soon as I turn the lights on. I have a ton of pictures I will be posting. And if needed tomorrow I can post a video.

I really am just looking for advice to keep my tank safe. If I should need to remove them what would be the best way to remove them? How can I make sure they don’t spread and what can I do to keep this from happening again?

(I do dip my corals before I put them in the tank).

I dont believe bristleworm but need clearer pics as these are a little fuzzy. Preliminary, looks like the feeding palps from spinoid worms

CrazyDuck959 · Mar 23, 2023

Rick's Reviews said:
Are they actively moving around? Could you use a siphon to suck them up and out of aquriam, if you seen them here (your pictures) I would assume there's more (better pictures would help identify)

I can’t get any better pictures sadly I have a really bad video. But it’s just like the pictures. They only come out at night and retract as soon as the lights go on. And no they are not actively moving around they seem to suck back into the same spot every time. And yeah I tried every way to remove them but they just stay retracted when I mess with them.