Acro hitchhiker and how to remove?

[Naturalreef]

Saw this extending from a coralite and doesn’t look like a acro polyp. Has two prong/antenna?

Sorry best photo I can get till whites turn on.
any ideas?

 

[Cell]

Spionid worm. Very difficult to eliminate.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Hard to say from the pic, but possibly a Coral Boring Spionid Worm?

Coral Boring Spionid Worms -- an ugly bane to SPS

This is not something I've ever seen before. They are extremely ugly. Mar the appearance of SPS. This is on a "Beach Bum" encrusting montipora. I would take aphasia or even montipora eating nudibranchs over this crap. I've beat those with hard work. Not sure how to eliminate these without...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Naturalreef]

Thanks for the quick replies. It’s the only one I see on a new frag. Can I just cut it off the coral without it reproducing?

here is the dilemma, I just did a rip clean of my entire tank to rid my tank of Dino’s. So Sps frags have been stressed. Think it would be okay to clip the small branch off the Sps with no ill effects? Rather nip this pest in the bud right away.

 

[Cell]

You will need to cut a large chunk out. Consider you are only seeing the worms antennae. The actual worm is probably at least 5x the length of the visible antennae.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

You'd have to make sure you get the entire worm, as these guys can regenerate massive lost portions of their bodies.

 

[Naturalreef]

Well that sucks, it is a 1 inch rainbow splice and came in that way. Any other way to eradicate this worm without killing my frag or infesting my tank?

 

[Cell]

In my experience, they really don't spread that fast and I've never seen one spread to a completely different coral. I battled one for months, gluing the hole shut only for it to eventually pop out of a new hole nearby, rinse repeat with the hopes of eventually starving it out.

 

[Naturalreef]

Appreciate the reply. I wonder if I can starve it out? I successfully got rid of vermetid snails in a previous tank by not feeding it and they slowly disappeared.

 

[Cell]

Just keep in mind, if you glue it shut, it likely promotes additional burrowing that might not have happened if it's current hole was not sealed. So if the frag is real small, you may want to just let it grow out a bit first.

 

[Naturalreef]

I think that is the game plan for now. Since it’s an expensive frag, I don’t want to risk stressing it any more. I’ll leave it be for now if you don’t think it will spread to other coral in a short amount of time. Does this worm stress the coral?

 

[Cell]

Not really that I can tell.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

The only times I've heard of these stressing/damaging corals is when they grow to plague proportions in a tank (i.e. when there are more worms than polyps sticking out of a coral, you may have problems). Below that insanely high population level, they don't do any real harm.

 

[Naturalreef]

Thanks everyone for the helpful info, much appreciated! Last question, how do they propagate? do they spread from one worm?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Thanks everyone for the helpful info, much appreciated! Last question, how do they propagate? do they spread from one worm?

Typically through sexual reproduction (see the quote below) - only 8 species of Spionids are known to reproduce asexually. So, you likely need two worms to get more.

at least a few species actually do reproduce in the tunnels and the young dig their way out, exacerbating the damage to the rock/coral. I’ll try to post the reference and it if I can find it again.

* The links:

Bioeroding (boring) polychaete species (Annelida: Polychaeta) from the Aegean Sea (eastern Mediterranean) | Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom | Cambridge Core

Bioeroding (boring) polychaete species (Annelida: Polychaeta) from the Aegean Sea (eastern Mediterranean) - Volume 101 Issue 2

www.cambridge.org

http://zoolstud.sinica.edu.tw/Journals/39.1/47.pdf https://www.marine.usf.edu/reefslab/documents/evol_ecol2007/Glynn(inpress).pdf

 

[Naturalreef]

Thank you Ispeak!