DD orange medusa worm
- Thread starter GoldeneyeRet
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I was tempted too but figured my fish would tear it apart
Phycodurus
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i had one of these Opheodesoma medusa worms! they are super cool to watch, and I swear it helped chow down on my green hair algae ... BUT be aware that they are actually a type of sea cucumber ... and being sea cucumbers, they come with the very real possibility of nuking your tank. i successfully requested LA to edit their default description to include a warning that they are poisonous (tipping my hat to LA/DD).
can you see where this is going ?? ...
unfortunately, mine got into a canister filter (dedicated for running activated carbon), despite the guard on the intake. being soft-bodied, they're quite flexible and totally like papier-mâché filled with water, and they're able to squeeze into all sorts of small cracks.
one evening, i noticed a small blue reef chromis dead on the sand and i thought it very odd. then several more fish unfortunately hours later.
a quick scan of the tank & rock work yielded no medusa worm, so i surmised that the critter had gotten into the canister filter.
--yup, there he was ... in the filter media and badly torn (he'd made it past the lid/motor!). after 48 hours of observation in a separate 2-gallon holding tank, i consigned defeat that he'd expired. ;Inpain
i keep a very mellow tank with mostly small fish (180G): chromis, mandarins, possum wrasses, gobies, blennies, banggai cardinals. nothing to give the medusa worm any aggravation. one spotted mandarin, a lawnmower blenny and a black molly survived, as did several inverts. corals survived more or less okay.
and that's ... the rest of the story.
tip: after acclimation, just let it wander out of the shipping bag if it doesn't easily slip out ... their body tissue is sticky everywhere, and very delicate so avoid the mistake of pulling it off whatever surface it's on.
can you see where this is going ?? ...
unfortunately, mine got into a canister filter (dedicated for running activated carbon), despite the guard on the intake. being soft-bodied, they're quite flexible and totally like papier-mâché filled with water, and they're able to squeeze into all sorts of small cracks.
one evening, i noticed a small blue reef chromis dead on the sand and i thought it very odd. then several more fish unfortunately hours later.
a quick scan of the tank & rock work yielded no medusa worm, so i surmised that the critter had gotten into the canister filter.
--yup, there he was ... in the filter media and badly torn (he'd made it past the lid/motor!). after 48 hours of observation in a separate 2-gallon holding tank, i consigned defeat that he'd expired. ;Inpain
i keep a very mellow tank with mostly small fish (180G): chromis, mandarins, possum wrasses, gobies, blennies, banggai cardinals. nothing to give the medusa worm any aggravation. one spotted mandarin, a lawnmower blenny and a black molly survived, as did several inverts. corals survived more or less okay.
and that's ... the rest of the story.
tip: after acclimation, just let it wander out of the shipping bag if it doesn't easily slip out ... their body tissue is sticky everywhere, and very delicate so avoid the mistake of pulling it off whatever surface it's on.
+1 agreed Years ago, the owner of the LFS that I worked for decided to put one in our reef tank, I came into work & noticed all the fish dead, I told him it was the Medusa worm, did a 90% water change, netted out the fish & worm, added carbon & poly filter & put the diatom filter on the tank for good measure. The corals survived, The shrimp didn’t
T
Yes, if they get picked by anything in the tank( fish, mobile inverts, anenome or coral stings), they eviscerate themselves( spit their insides out) & kills a lot things in the tankSo anything that can look at the thing diesHence Medusa ... do they excrete toxins?
Phycodurus
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Jeremy K.A.
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I had one, Nuked my tank, killed 80% of my fish overnight
Phycodurus
Well-Known Member
—eek! (>__<)’
