christmas tree worm rock

rock_lobster · Jul 21, 2018

delete

Retro Reefer · Jul 21, 2018

They are pretty hard to keep so you don’t see them that often, the hosting coral usually dies off followed by the worms.. you need to have a really well established tank with plankton, I had one years ago and it was beautiful, every worm was a different color.

Just a note: it would be almost impossible to do a wysiwyg listing for these because the worms may or may not open and certainly not at the same time.. mine would constantly go in and out of their holes, I think that’s where the Xmas tree comes from it looks like Xmas lights flashing..

ca1ore · Jul 21, 2018

They are occasionally available for sale, though not nearly as frequently as they used to be and those that you do find aren't as nice as they were - not really sure why. Mostly they were/are porites SPS coral which is no more difficult to keep than other SPS. The worms are mostly enduring, though they are often irresistible to certain fish. Often the crowns will get nibbled, causing the worm to shed it. If this happens too much the worms will die. I currently have two in my frag tank, out of reach of my fish. Have had them for a couple of years now. Porites has grown and some new worms have taken up residence, though more the standard fan worms rather than really colorful ones. I keep an eye out locally for them and will always snap up nice lookers.

rock_lobster · Jul 21, 2018

Ya some of the pics are unbelievable online.

ca1ore said:
They are occasionally available for sale, though not nearly as frequently as they used to be and those that you do find aren't as nice as they were - not really sure why. Mostly they were/are porites SPS coral which is no more difficult to keep than other SPS. The worms are mostly enduring, though they are often irresistible to certain fish. Often the crowns will get nibbled, causing the worm to shed it. If this happens too much the worms will die. I currently have two in my frag tank, out of reach of my fish. Have had them for a couple of years now. Porites has grown and some new worms have taken up residence, though more the standard fan worms rather than really colorful ones. I keep an eye out locally for them and will always snap up nice lookers.

ca1ore · Jul 21, 2018

That made me laugh because I know that picture , though not mine unfortunately. My current ones don't look nearly as nice as that LOL. I'll dig up a picture of my two and post them here.

saltyhog · Jul 21, 2018

They are pretty common in the Caribbean but not as colorful as the pictures you see. I took these in several different places. They can live even if their coral dies. I have a picture somewhere of one on a bare rock after his coral died.

saltyhog · Jul 21, 2018

Found it.

najer · Jul 22, 2018

I love these, I've had my lfs keeping an eye out for a piece for a couple of years now.

kirstyflash · Jul 22, 2018

We have two rocks in our tank, one with 15 adults and several babes and the other has 40+. The coral is dead but the worms are very healthy. The rocks are also host to coral hermit crabs, micro brittle stars and plenty of other little creatures. We broadcast feed freeze dried phyto, reef roids and frozen coral and worm foods. We are in Melbourne and have a shop, not very close to us that always has these.

Mr. Bill · Jul 22, 2018

JMO, but I believe the main reasons for a lack of focus on them are:

1) They're not cheap. Live Aquaria's prices start at $35 for a small (1.5 to 2.5 inch) rock or dead coral with an unspecified number of worms. ("Usually ships with several...")

2) You can get them as hitch hikers on live rock or coral, and in a healthy tank, they will multiply and spread.

3) Add the wrong fish or shrimp and they can be eradicated from your aquarium.

kirstyflash · Jul 22, 2018

Mr. Bill said:
JMO, but I believe the main reasons for a lack of focus on them are:

1) They're not cheap. Live Aquaria's prices start at $35 for a small (1.5 to 2.5 inch) rock or dead coral with an unspecified number of worms. ("Usually ships with several...")

2) You can get them as hitch hikers on live rock or coral, and in a healthy tank, they will multiply and spread.

3) Add the wrong fish or shrimp and they can be eradicated from your aquarium.

I agree!
1) yes definitely expensive. Our two rocks cost $190aud.
2) they do multiply. We have lots of babies appearing
3) we are always picky on what we introduce to ensure they won’t be eaten.

ca1ore · Jul 22, 2018

Here are the two I have in my frag tank. They've been there about two years. Keeping the porites alive is really no different than any other SPS. I do feed the tank reef roids/ova/rods once a week, which along with regular fish feeding has been enough to keep the spirobranchus worms alive. I have not found that these worms propogate in my aquarium - common fan worms do, but not these. Interestingly, as the coral has grown other kinds of fa worms have become encrusted; you can see a couple of them in the second picture.

rock_lobster · Jul 22, 2018

ca1ore said:
Here are the two I have in my frag tank. They've been there about two years. Keeping the porites alive is really no different than any other SPS. I do feed the tank reef roids/ova/rods once a week, which along with regular fish feeding has been enough to keep the spirobranchus worms alive. I have not found that these worms propogate in my aquarium - common fan worms do, but not these. Interestingly, as the coral has grown other kinds of fa worms have become encrusted; you can see a couple of them in the second picture.

Wow that is stunning especially that big orange one. If only the density would increase.

TessGlo · Jul 23, 2018

I love these, up close, even with the tiny worms, the colors are amazing. I have two currently, the one it the first two photos below I purchased from a Tidal Gardens live sale in May 2017 for $70 (Than has a great Youtube video on worm rocks btw). The one in the third photo I purchased from my LFS about 6 months ago for $60, its not a great photo but is has more worms, but it is still in the fuzzy brown stage, which gets to my thinking about why you don't see them much, they need time to color up and so they don't sell well. My LFS had the worm rock for a month and no one bought it, probably because it does not stand out and you wouldn't notice it unless you knew what you were looking at. At that price I couldn't resist any longer and felt it would color up. Its slowly turning green as I acclimate it to higher light. I don't do anything special for them besides having a tank that supports SPS. I have not used phyto until recently. However, I do place them near where I feed so that they can take advantage of the clowdy stuff, but I don't know how much they benefit from that. Given my experience I'd say they are not too demanding. I hope you can get one!