Bright yellowish/green worm

[Tired]

I mean, there was that one shop that found a 4-foot eunicid worm in one of their tanks, having done absolutely nothing that they were aware of. Some species are just well-behaved.

 

[IKD]

Not that I can tell. I had two, removed one and never caught the other. Tanks been running over a year without seeing it. Maybe I’ll get my red flashlight out this week and do some snooping. He must be pretty large by now if he’s lived this long.

Well, full disclosure. I broke out my red flashlight last night and saw the tell-tale head of the second bobbit I never caught. The corals have never shown any signs of damage but I did notice a couple empty snail shows below the rock he was in (on the other side of the tank now). After watching, it looked like he was munching on my Garf Bonsaii. Luckily he was in a rock I could easily remove from the tank, which I did.

So after soaking the rock in fresh water overnight, I took a hammer to the rock to break it apart. Well, he’s definitely grown since the 1-2” he was when I first saw him ~1.5 yrs ago. He measured close to 12”.

Overall I don’t think he did much harm to the tank, but he probably wasn’t done growing either. Some pics to help you sleep at night.

 

[Tired]

Big fella! Actual bobbit, though, or another eunicid? Bobbits like sand, IIRC, and a true bobbit would probably have eaten your fish.

Still got him? Might be a fun sump monster.

 

[IKD]

Big fella! Actual bobbit, though, or another eunicid? Bobbits like sand, IIRC, and a true bobbit would probably have eaten your fish.

Still got him? Might be a fun sump monster.

Just a nuisance Eunice worm vs a true bobbit I suspect. He be dead already, sorry.

 

[Tired]

If you find another one, maybe see if anyone wants it, I bet you'd get takers. I've seen a picture of a really cool eunicid, 8 inches long and pitch black except for a white collar around its neck, that was brought into my LFS so the person who'd found it could pick out a good breeder box to keep it in. Especially since the proliferation of dry rock has made them rarer, there's a demand for big cool worms. Heck, if I get a big one, it's going in my HOB 'fuge- their mouthparts are really neat.

In fact, if you got a true bobbit, I'm sure someone would want that. They're iridescent and super cool to look at.

Good to have another data point of "a big eunicid chewed one of my corals and ate some snails, but it didn't murder my entire tank". Big ones like that can be problems, but a chewed coral and a couple dead snails isn't a disaster.