Worm killed chalice?

[H.E. Pennypacker]

All other coral are growing happy but my sole Hyper Watermelon chalice slowly went downhill over the last month plus since I got it in Sept. It had its mesenterial filaments out here and there then all the time. Then it proceeded to lose tissue. I fragged a small piece two weeks ago (less than the size of a pinkie nail) which seemed to be doing ok. The bigger piece kept losing tissue no matter what I did, dips etc.

I finally called it quits and took it out fearing it may spread. After being in some fresh water I cracked it and found this - is this a worm or the insides? I dip and remove plugs and have only bought from two popular vendors. I have a BB with no rock (big disks) and have never seen any pests or hitchhikers. Is it a bristle worm? Even when I had rock I never saw anything.

My working theory is this was living behind the tissue and skeleton causing it to die? Maybe it was trapped and ate it?

Super bumped since it was a pricey chalice :(

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

 

[Reefing102]

I just found this thread and didn’t realize no one responded. For me it’s hard to give a definitive but appears to be a polychaete of some type (several thousand species if I’m not mistaken). Any chance of pics in water, if you haven’t gotten rid of it already (since it’s been about a month).

@ISpeakForTheSeas any thoughts here?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I just found this thread and didn’t realize no one responded. For me it’s hard to give a definitive but appears to be a polychaete of some type (several thousand species if I’m not mistaken). Any chance of pics in water, if you haven’t gotten rid of it already (since it’s been about a month).

@ISpeakForTheSeas any thoughts here?

Not many, unfortunately. It's definitely a polychaete, and the color is relatively unique (the spines look like they could be somewhat unique too), but I can't see enough of the worm to attempt an ID beyond that from the pics.

That said, polychaetes pretty rarely bother corals in our tanks, but if the tank has no sand or rock for it to hide in, then it would make sense for the worm to live near/in or under the coral to hide for safety. I doubt it was actively eating the coral (though I can't rule it out), but if it was crawling on the coral constantly getting in and out of its home, I could see that irritating the coral enough to cause issues.

 

[vetteguy53081]

All other coral are growing happy but my sole Hyper Watermelon chalice slowly went downhill over the last month plus since I got it in Sept. It had its mesenterial filaments out here and there then all the time. Then it proceeded to lose tissue. I fragged a small piece two weeks ago (less than the size of a pinkie nail) which seemed to be doing ok. The bigger piece kept losing tissue no matter what I did, dips etc.

I finally called it quits and took it out fearing it may spread. After being in some fresh water I cracked it and found this - is this a worm or the insides? I dip and remove plugs and have only bought from two popular vendors. I have a BB with no rock (big disks) and have never seen any pests or hitchhikers. Is it a bristle worm? Even when I had rock I never saw anything.

My working theory is this was living behind the tissue and skeleton causing it to die? Maybe it was trapped and ate it?

Super bumped since it was a pricey chalice :(

Most worms wont bother chalice. often it will be a water flow issue, high phosphate level, low calcium and high alk (things to verify)