Worms boring into elegance

[Coral Memere]

Yesterday, I went to my first big city reefing show and got the fever of buying double corals for half the money if pay online.
In the last 2 years of building my reef, I have developed a deep love of elegance coral (along with my zoa obsession) I picked up a pink tipped elegance with no less than 15 mouths. It's about 12" long, curved into a horseshoe shape.

I got home and did the whole acclimation and dip in iodine thing. I took it out of the iodine and started my close-up look. I found dark worms with pointed heads sticking out of the skeleton. I didn't take a picture before digging at them, but found on of the heads in the dip box, this morning.

The part pointing down is what was sticking out of the skeleton (maybe with antennae, also). It is soft, not tubular or hard like a vermetid snails and it is just the piece of what the longer worm was that tried to back down into the skeleton.

I examined the skeleton and saw that there appeared to be a new skeleton inside (surrounding the animal) the hard, outer one and that they had separated, so I started digging to chase the worm.

I found no less than 4 worms and got them out in pieces.

The worms were about 1/8 inch in diameter. There were big.

I looked around the skeleton and found small holes all around and found more worms. (One I speared whole and it looked like something out of star trek)

Up until now, I was thinking coral boring Spionid Worms. I gave up hunting and put the coral into a pitcher of tank water and this monster came out into the water, alive and wiggling.

Now I'm not sure what to think. This afternoon I set up an official QT tank for him and looked into the holes from yesterday and found worms still hanging out.

The only other think that I found interesting was kind of a black muddy/sandy goo in the holes. I don't believe they're bristle worms. I don't know why some were pink and some were dark. Two different worms?

The elegance, itself, seems unaffected. Like I said, I think it was building another skeleton for itself, inside the infested one.
From above after an hour in the new tank, this afternoon.

From the front.

 

[Tinnerito]

Yesterday, I went to my first big city reefing show and got the fever of buying double corals for half the money if pay online.
In the last 2 years of building my reef, I have developed a deep love of elegance coral (along with my zoa obsession) I picked up a pink tipped elegance with no less than 15 mouths. It's about 12" long, curved into a horseshoe shape.

I got home and did the whole acclimation and dip in iodine thing. I took it out of the iodine and started my close-up look. I found dark worms with pointed heads sticking out of the skeleton. I didn't take a picture before digging at them, but found on of the heads in the dip box, this morning.

The part pointing down is what was sticking out of the skeleton (maybe with antennae, also). It is soft, not tubular or hard like a vermetid snails and it is just the piece of what the longer worm was that tried to back down into the skeleton.

I examined the skeleton and saw that there appeared to be a new skeleton inside (surrounding the animal) the hard, outer one and that they had separated, so I started digging to chase the worm.

I found no less than 4 worms and got them out in pieces.

The worms were about 1/8 inch in diameter. There were big.

I looked around the skeleton and found small holes all around and found more worms. (One I speared whole and it looked like something out of star trek)

Up until now, I was thinking coral boring Spionid Worms. I gave up hunting and put the coral into a pitcher of tank water and this monster came out into the water, alive and wiggling.

Now I'm not sure what to think. This afternoon I set up an official QT tank for him and looked into the holes from yesterday and found worms still hanging out.

The only other think that I found interesting was kind of a black muddy/sandy goo in the holes. I don't believe they're bristle worms. I don't know why some were pink and some were dark. Two different worms?

The elegance, itself, seems unaffected. Like I said, I think it was building another skeleton for itself, inside the infested one.
From above after an hour in the new tank, this afternoon.

From the front.

I never thought there could be so many huge worms in a coral after dipping. Good luck!

 

[Coral Memere]

Yesterday, I went to my first big city reefing show and got the fever of buying double corals for half the money if pay online.
In the last 2 years of building my reef, I have developed a deep love of elegance coral (along with my zoa obsession) I picked up a pink tipped elegance with no less than 15 mouths. It's about 12" long, curved into a horseshoe shape.

I got home and did the whole acclimation and dip in iodine thing. I took it out of the iodine and started my close-up look. I found dark worms with pointed heads sticking out of the skeleton. I didn't take a picture before digging at them, but found on of the heads in the dip box, this morning.

The part pointing down is what was sticking out of the skeleton (maybe with antennae, also). It is soft, not tubular or hard like a vermetid snails and it is just the piece of what the longer worm was that tried to back down into the skeleton.

I examined the skeleton and saw that there appeared to be a new skeleton inside (surrounding the animal) the hard, outer one and that they had separated, so I started digging to chase the worm.

I found no less than 4 worms and got them out in pieces.

The worms were about 1/8 inch in diameter. There were big.

I looked around the skeleton and found small holes all around and found more worms. (One I speared whole and it looked like something out of star trek)

Up until now, I was thinking coral boring Spionid Worms. I gave up hunting and put the coral into a pitcher of tank water and this monster came out into the water, alive and wiggling.

Now I'm not sure what to think. This afternoon I set up an official QT tank for him and looked into the holes from yesterday and found worms still hanging out.

The only other think that I found interesting was kind of a black muddy/sandy goo in the holes. I don't believe they're bristle worms. I don't know why some were pink and some were dark. Two different worms?

The elegance, itself, seems unaffected. Like I said, I think it was building another skeleton for itself, inside the infested one.
From above after an hour in the new tank, this afternoon.

From the front.

So I fed my new friend and watched what happened around his skeleton.
This is the worm where I cut

Then I found this on the other side of the horseshoe... Hole in the skeleton, but I never dug at it.

I thought feather dusters had tubes on the outside of the skeleton. In that first picture, he's 1/4"+ IN the skeleton!

And just for fun, I found this on the other side... Last night when I shaved one off, I thought it was externally rooted.

 

[Hippopus_clam]

So I fed my new friend and watched what happened around his skeleton.
This is the worm where I cut

Then I found this on the other side of the horseshoe... Hole in the skeleton, but I never dug at it.

I thought feather dusters had tubes on the outside of the skeleton. In that first picture, he's 1/4"+ IN the skeleton!

And just for fun, I found this on the other side... Last night when I shaved one off, I thought it was externally rooted.

what happened with the elegance and the boring worms?

 

[Coral Memere]

what happened with the elegance and the boring worms?

Oh that elegance was dead within the month. I think I cut too deep into it. Now it's 18 months later and I've learned about worms, skeletons... And most importantly elegance syndrome and oxalinic acid. I now have a happy family of 4 monsters that make me replace all my snails every couple months.

 

[gorilla]

this is acutally nuts, never seen anything like that

 

[Coral Memere]

this is acutally nuts, never seen anything like that

Knowing what I know, now... I mayyyyyy have overreacted with the knife. I'm sad because I didn't realize how rare pink elegance are. I thought they were spionid and I fear them almost as much as bobbit worms!

 

[rayadog]

Well now I’m curious, did those feather dusters chemically bore into the dead skeleton?