What is this worm?

[BurtMacklin]

I just added 2 banggai cardinal, a YWG, a green mandarin goby, a blue hippo tang, and a flame angelfish from DR Reef's quarantine fish to my 200 gallon reefer xl

Unfortunately the flame angel, one cardinal, and the YWG all died within 3 days. Water parameters are normal and the other fish are all ok. The cardinal was almost dead last night, but I couldn't get him out. The CUC got him last night and only a skeleton remains. Now I have these worms in my tank. They were definitely not in here prior to the new arrivals.

Can someone ID this guy and should I be worried? Could they be the cause of these deaths? Pictures and video attached.

@vetteguy53081

 

[Doglips56]

Looks like bristleworms and they don’t kill fish. If you drip acclimated the shipment there was likely a huge ammonia spike that killed them

 

[Kristopher Conlin]

Dorvillidae worm

From my understanding they eat detritus and wouldn't kill fish.

 

[BurtMacklin]

Looks like bristleworms and they don’t kill fish. If you drop acclimated the shipment there was likely a huge ammonia spike that killed them

Why are you assuming there was an ammonia spike?

 

[38bill]

Google Bobbit worm and see if they look like your worm.

 

[BurtMacklin]

Google Bobbit worm and see if they look like your worm.

Haha thank goodness no. I think Kristopher was right on dorvillidae worm. Pics from another post on them look the same

 

[Gtinnel]

Dorvillidae worm

From my understanding they eat detritus and wouldn't kill fish.

+1

 

[BurtMacklin]

Great. I hope it was just stress from shipping that killed the others then.

 

[Gtinnel]

Haha thank goodness no. I think Kristopher was right on dorvillidae worm. Pics from another post on them look the same

Young Eunicidae worms can look similar to Dorvilleidae worms, but I agree to me it looks like a harmless Dorvilleidae to me too.

 

[Kristopher Conlin]

Why are you assuming there was an ammonia spike?

ammonia builds in the bag as the fish are I transit. That ammonia doesn't hurt them because of the lack of fresh oxygen that is also depleting in transit. Acting as a buffer. When you start adding tank water rich in oxygen through drip acclimation the ammonia burns the fishes gills. They will usually die a few days later from this.

 

[Doglips56]

Why are you assuming there was an ammonia spike?

I’m not trying to assume anything. Unfortunately I made a huge error the first time I ordered fish online. The instructions said to drip acclimate so I did and didn’t realize you should never drip acclimate shipped fish even if their instructions say to do so. It was just a possibility with losing so many of them so quickly

 

[BurtMacklin]

I’m not trying to assume anything. Unfortunately I made a huge error the first time I ordered fish online. The instructions said to drip acclimate so I did and didn’t realize you should never drip acclimate shipped fish even if their instructions say to do so. It was just a possibility with losing so many of them so quickly

Gotcha. Yeah I did not drip acclimate them and I had no change in parameters.

 

[Doglips56]

Gotcha. Yeah I did not drip acclimate them and I had no change in parameters.

Well I’m super sorry you lost your fish

 

[Gtinnel]

ammonia builds in the bag as the fish are I transit. That ammonia doesn't hurt them because of the lack of fresh oxygen that is also depleting in transit. Acting as a buffer. When you start adding tank water rich in oxygen through drip acclimation the ammonia burns the fishes gills. They will usually die a few days later from this.

Yep when the CO2 in the bag off gases the pH increases making the ammonia more toxic.

I either drip acclimate but add prime to the shipping water (ONLY if the shipping water wasn’t treated with copper). If there is possibly copper in the water I just match my qt to the shipping salinity, temp acclimate and drop the fish in. Being able to match salinity is IMO a huge advantage of qt, although buying from Dr Reef I assume you aren’t putting the fish in a qt.

 

[BurtMacklin]

Yep when the CO2 in the bag off gases the pH increases making the ammonia more toxic.

I either drip acclimate but add prime to the shipping water (ONLY if the shipping water wasn’t treated with copper). If there is possibly copper in the water I just match my qt to the shipping salinity, temp acclimate and drop the fish in. Being able to match salinity is IMO a huge advantage of qt, although buying from Dr Reef I assume you aren’t putting the fish in a qt.

I do have a qt for when I'm doing my own qt, but when I buy from him they go straight in my DT. Very sad to have lost all of those beautiful fish so quickly. I've had nothing but great luck with him for the past year and he'll be replacing these ones for me.

 

[BurtMacklin]

Young Eunicidae worms can look similar to Dorvilleidae worms, but I agree to me it looks like a harmless Dorvilleidae to me too.

You trying to make me lose sleep? Haha

 

[Gtinnel]

You trying to make me lose sleep? Haha

 

[BurtMacklin]

I don't love the look of worms in the tank, so they're probably going to get pulled as I find them anyway.

 

[Gtinnel]

I don't love the look of worms in the tank, so they're probably going to get pulled as I find them anyway.

I don’t mind worms in my tank but my wrasse makes it to where I almost never actually see any of them. Before getting the wrasse when I would feed the tank bristleworms would crawl out of every tiny hole in my rockwork. It was neat and terrifying all at the same time.

 

[Doglips56]

I don’t mind worms in my tank but my wrasse makes it to where I almost never actually see any of them. Before getting the wrasse when I would feed the tank bristleworms would crawl out of every tiny hole in my rockwork. It was neat and terrifying all at the same time.

We got an arrow crab for them but it chowed down in so many it got huge and moved on to our shrimp and fish so he got expelled! Thankfully the LFS took him back