Christmas Tree Worms!

College_Reefer · Oct 8, 2020

I just wanted to share my Christmas tree worm rock. From everything I have read and heard, it is pretty hard to find these anymore, let alone with the worms thriving in a rock with no live Porites coral. I have had this rock for 2 years and the guy I got it from had kept them for 2 years before I got it, also with no live coral. I have about 17(ish) worms in this rock that is roughly the size of a baseball. These are my absolute favorite things in my tank so if you guys/gals are keeping them, lets see the pics!

Miller535 · Oct 8, 2020

I do not have them, but they are pretty cool. I have to say it's been probably 10 years since I have seen these in a store.

College_Reefer · Oct 8, 2020

Miller535 said:
I do not have them, but they are pretty cool. I have to say it's been probably 10 years since I have seen these in a store.

I haven't been in the hobby for crazy long (only a few years) but in that time, I can't say that I have ever seen them. I got them from a guy at a show

christwendt · Oct 8, 2020

Why are they hard to find ? I’ve seen them online.

PeterLL · Oct 8, 2020

They're awesome. Do they breed or produce more worms or does the rock just start to die off once they reach old age?

College_Reefer · Oct 8, 2020

christwendt said:
Why are they hard to find ? I’ve seen them online.

I think they're hard to find because they're so hard to actually successfully keep when you have to keep the Porites and worms alive together. I'd imagine a lot of fish stores don't want to try and take that responsibility. If one goes, the other is soon to follow. I seem to have gotten very lucky and been one of the rare examples where this isn't the case.

CCauthers · Oct 8, 2020

FYI they can grow on leptos and other encrusting lps. Very cool tho

College_Reefer · Oct 8, 2020

PeterLL said:
They're awesome. Do they breed or produce more worms or does the rock just start to die off once they reach old age?

They broadcast spawn however they congregate into colonies in one area so I actually have 2 worms that are so small and new that they only could've been there due to spawning however I have never actually witnessed it

tripdad · Oct 8, 2020

Ok, fess up, share your care regimen so we may all learn. Thanks for sharing.

Miller535 · Oct 8, 2020

10 years ago it seems they were very abundant. Every saltwater store seemed to always have some. I do not know why they have mostly seemed to vanish. Some online stores do occasionally have them. But most advertise them (like liveaquaria), but if you actually click on the link they are pretty much always out of stock.

As I recall though, many folks had a hard time keeping the worms alive long term. So good job doing what most couldn't.

Bfragale · Oct 8, 2020

Back in 2002-2007 when I had my first reef tank in So Cal- you could randomly find these on live rock, many stores had them and they were not super expensive.

now a days I’ve only seen two in person- one largerock with the coral half alive and about 12 worms for $350!

the other: I went to my favorite lfs (shout out to Jason at Ellis Aquatics in Compton!) when I got there they were tearing apart one of his tanks. Apparently his auto dozer dumped a bunch of mag in the tank. I’m a nosy guy lol so I was inspecting this tank that he was pulling all the corals out of and in the bottom center I saw a Little Rock with one orange Xmas tree worm! I got excited and askes about it- he saidhe don’t realize it was even there and sold it to me for $10!

not this little guy is one of my cheapest but favorite inverts I have. Only one and no coral but here it is:

Had it about 9 months now. Photo was from when I purchased. (Don’t mind the Pandora’s next to it- those are since gone!)

But yours is super cool! Thanks for sharing!

HAPPY REEFING!

ScubaFish802 · Oct 8, 2020

Wish it was more common to see them on live rock like this. You'd think with how rare they have become someone would have figured out how to do this regularly! I personally think the coral they usually are found in is ugly. Seeing them in live rock like the photos above changes the game for me

themcnertney · Oct 8, 2020

One of my favorite videos from Tidal Gardens

Sbpe · Oct 8, 2020

Would love to have a rock like that. I have many photos of them from diving in the keys, but like others, don't see them in the LFS.

Karen00 · Oct 8, 2020

These are beautiful! It's hard to believe they are worms! I would definitely keep these in my tank!

Karen00 · Oct 8, 2020

Dan McNertney said:
One of my favorite videos from Tidal Gardens

Geez, the colors are stunning on these guys!!

College_Reefer · Oct 9, 2020

tripdad said:
Ok, fess up, share your care regimen so we may all learn. Thanks for sharing.

Honestly I wish I had a magic solution or some secret trick. I keep my tank around 77, I don't keep hermits or anything that could eat them and I broadcast feed ReefRoids and phyto each once a week and that's it. Flow wise, I keep them in high enough flow that they can filter feed but not high enough that they're visibly struggling against it. They have also traveled around 2,000 miles with me to PA and then back to Florida via 5 gallon bucket. I must just be really lucky

College_Reefer · Oct 9, 2020

802ScubaFish said:
Wish it was more common to see them on live rock like this. You'd think with how rare they have become someone would have figured out how to do this regularly! I personally think the coral they usually are found in is ugly. Seeing them in live rock like the photos above changes the game for me

I'm not sure if you can see from my picture (if not I can take a macro shot) but the whole rock is taken up by their tubes. There are so many bored through the rock there is almost no rock left.

College_Reefer · Oct 9, 2020

Bfragale said:
Back in 2002-2007 when I had my first reef tank in So Cal- you could randomly find these on live rock, many stores had them and they were not super expensive.

now a days I’ve only seen two in person- one largerock with the coral half alive and about 12 worms for $350!

the other: I went to my favorite lfs (shout out to Jason at Ellis Aquatics in Compton!) when I got there they were tearing apart one of his tanks. Apparently his auto dozer dumped a bunch of mag in the tank. I’m a nosy guy lol so I was inspecting this tank that he was pulling all the corals out of and in the bottom center I saw a Little Rock with one orange Xmas tree worm! I got excited and askes about it- he saidhe don’t realize it was even there and sold it to me for $10!

not this little guy is one of my cheapest but favorite inverts I have. Only one and no coral but here it is:

Had it about 9 months now. Photo was from when I purchased. (Don’t mind the Pandora’s next to it- those are since gone!)

But yours is super cool! Thanks for sharing!

HAPPY REEFING!

Thanks! That's super cool you found one too. When I bought this rock, it was the most expensive thing I had bought for my tank at $130. Now I'm seeing huge rocks posted with like 5 worms for $300. I didn't realize how lucky I was until I started looking into it.

Alaeriel · Oct 9, 2020

These are by far my favorites. I'd love to try and keep them, but I can't justify $300+ on something I'm not certain would thrive. My tank is way too young. If they ever become as abundant as feather duster worms again, I'd definitely go for it.