Any idea what creature is?

[AydenLincoln]

Dang it! I clicked on it. Never gonna sleep again...

SAME. HAHA!

 

[AydenLincoln]

So i put coral glue/mold on the hole and hoped that would solve it but of course i could see it crawl in the rock in another little hole on the side and im pretty sure it has built a wall in there.

Most holes in the rocks are connected so covering one won’t help or keep them in. Think of it like a maze. Next time you see it…most likely at night take a pair of tweezers and try to remove it.

 

[Tired]

Yeah, it's probably got a whole network in there. It's also potentially not the only one, and like I said, it's not likely to be a concern for anything other than macroalgae. Just looks spooky.

 

[kjkszpj9]

Yeah ive seen its body in the crevice in the rock when i shine the light on it then seeing it retract in again its very freaky and gives me shivers

 

[MoshJosh]

can you pull the rock?

If so put it in a Tupperware and wait a while. . . I imagine once the rock is dry enough he will crawl out. . . at least thats what I have seen some critters do when I pull LR.

 

[kjkszpj9]

I mean technically i can "pull" the rock or if u mean move but im unsure how it woulx help plus 1 rock is laying on the rock like this /

 

[vetteguy53081]

Need help identifying this creepy thing hiding in live rock.

Oh no - appears to be a bobbit worm and it MUST come out . Set a simple trap with a 1 0r 2 liter bottle baited with shrimp or krill and freeze or other method to end it

TRAP

Bobbit:

 

[Tired]

Oh no - appears to be a bobbit worm and it MUST come out . Set a simple trap with a 1 0r 2 liter bottle baited with shrimp or krill and freeze or other method to end it

Extremely unlikely for it to be a bobbit, those are vanishingly rare in the hobby at this point. There are way more species of eunicid, most of which are scavengers and grazers, than just the bobbits.

I mean technically i can "pull" the rock or if u mean move but im unsure how it woulx help plus 1 rock is laying on the rock like this /

"Pull" the rock means pulling it completely out of the tank. Squirting RODI water into that hole (with the rock out of the water) would probably make it come out. Wear gloves to handle the rock, and figure out how you're going to humanely kill the worm; it didn't ask to be here. Plonking it in a saltwater cup in the fridge until it goes insensate, then into the freezer, should be OK if you don't have any clove oil to cleanly euthanize it.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Extremely unlikely for it to be a bobbit, those are vanishingly rare in the hobby at this point. There are way more species of eunicid, most of which are scavengers and grazers, than just the bobbits.


"Pull" the rock means pulling it completely out of the tank. Squirting RODI water into that hole (with the rock out of the water) would probably make it come out. Wear gloves to handle the rock, and figure out how you're going to humanely kill the worm; it didn't ask to be here. Plonking it in a saltwater cup in the fridge until it goes insensate, then into the freezer, should be OK if you don't have any clove oil to cleanly euthanize it.

Gonna go look quick on my large screen

 

[vetteguy53081]

@kjkszpj9
Looking on a larger screen after encouragement from @Tired , this may be a eunicid worm, or even epitoke which are not as scary as bobbit But capable of growing to good size warranting removal but not as urgent. The trap design I gave will still work for them although if epitoke, they eat detritus as well

 

[JoJosReef]

can you pull the rock?

If so put it in a Tupperware and wait a while. . . I imagine once the rock is dry enough he will crawl out. . . at least thats what I have seen some critters do when I pull LR.

They never crawl all the way out, and they are lightning fast at retracting.

Best I've been able to tell from reading every eunicid post I could find, they might come out if you remove the rock and shoot club soda into their hole.

 

[JoJosReef]

Heres a video of satan himself, you can clearly see it has 5 tentacles

Stuff of nightmares. Only one solution:

 

[MoshJosh]

Then I vote pull the rock and start a worm tank. . . maybe you can train it to take food off tongs!!!

 

[JoJosReef]

Also note: I've tried removing rocks and squrting really hot water into the holes (not boiling--don't want to kill all the good stuff in your rock or make it explode).

Nope, just laughed at my feable attempts and replied to me "see you tonight. Ha. Haha. Mwahahaha!"

 

[JoJosReef]

Then I vote pull the rock and start a worm tank. . . maybe you can train it to take food off tongs!!!

You might if you feed at lights out! I used to feed flake to a serpent star and my bigger eunice would come right out for it!

Also how I caught it with my tongs and watched in horror as it attached the tongs like a bloody cobra. Lost my grip and it retracted instantly and hid for a few weeks.

They also break easily and regrow heads, so very hard to actually pull one out. Has to be very slow, constant pressure to remove (there's a video about removing actual bobbits from their lair by catching the head with a flotation device and tiring the sucker out till it comes out).

 

[CoralScape123]

I agree. The head looks like one of the dangerous worms. I would try to remove it.. gently. Don't want it breaking and giving you the gift of two worms.

Worms are red, worms are blue. Where there was one, now there's two!

 

[IKD]

Oh, looks like you've got one of the black ones with a white collar. Those eunicids are pretty common on Florida live rock, and from what I've been able to find, are harmless to everything except macroalgae. They get big and freaky-looking, but they won't hurt anything, and they are pretty cool. I'm a little miffed that mine don't seem to have lasted, I was hoping for a giant.

I have to disagree from my experience. I had KP Aquatics rock with two of these hitchhikers. I found and removed one before putting in my display, but found the other a year later and was eating my Garf Bonsai Acropora (red flashlights kinda work with not startling them). He was still skinny but ~13 inches long when I finally removed him. They were both all black with a white collar. I actually knew he was there because of the small pile of empty snail shells on the sandbed below. Maybe mine was rogue relative to its species, but glad he was removed.

 

[kjkszpj9]

ive never seen the worm in my rock outside or even its head out enough for me to even attempt at grabbing it with a tong. and ive been up at 6 in the morning and still dont see it ever, i kind of destroyed his mucus wall a little today but i havent picked up the rock i just took a metal tong and fiddled a little in the wall it has made but couldnt really do much anyway cause the angle requires me to lift the rock and stick the tong inside.

 

[kjkszpj9]

It lives in the circled area or around there and the line upwards is where ive seen it stretch upwards cause i saw its body and it retracted back and it made me shiver seeing it retract 0_0

 

[kjkszpj9]

Okay so im pretty sure i saw a white circle around its body near its head so i think it might be a

Eunice valens​

which only grows to about 20cm
or i could be wrong cause i think its tentacles are dark/black colored but i gotta admit the colors this guy has which shines in all colors like a rainbow is nice too look at.