Worm id
- Thread starter kashman100
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Lionfish Lair
Renee
DUDE! What in the world!!! Are you just gonna keep on pulling them out of there like clowns leaving a car?
As far as what their risk is.... well, they're not a Bobbit, so your fish are safe. I keep a catalog of things experts say in relation to different critters.... real experts, not forum hitchhiker guessers (which is what I am). Leslie Harris had this to say about Eunices in our tanks...
"The only way for you to know what it eats & how it gets along with the other critters in your tank is to watch it. Most of them don't get very large & are inoffensive scavengers or herbivores at their size. If you want to be proactive & get it out you'll need to bait it out."
and..
"Some reefers have seen their large eunicids feeding on snails, dead animals, corals, sponges, etc. Others have had large eunicids that only eat algae & detritus. Smaller specimens have different food preferences than the large ones. So like I said, it's really hard to predict what any particular one will do."
I wouldn't tear apart a tank to get them out unless you're pretty sure they're doing something harm. I would try to bait them out, which may take awhile to be successful. If you have a lot of them, I would suspect they aren't eating anything desirable, or you would have noticed things you like disappearing by now.
As far as what their risk is.... well, they're not a Bobbit, so your fish are safe. I keep a catalog of things experts say in relation to different critters.... real experts, not forum hitchhiker guessers (which is what I am). Leslie Harris had this to say about Eunices in our tanks...
"The only way for you to know what it eats & how it gets along with the other critters in your tank is to watch it. Most of them don't get very large & are inoffensive scavengers or herbivores at their size. If you want to be proactive & get it out you'll need to bait it out."
and..
"Some reefers have seen their large eunicids feeding on snails, dead animals, corals, sponges, etc. Others have had large eunicids that only eat algae & detritus. Smaller specimens have different food preferences than the large ones. So like I said, it's really hard to predict what any particular one will do."
I wouldn't tear apart a tank to get them out unless you're pretty sure they're doing something harm. I would try to bait them out, which may take awhile to be successful. If you have a lot of them, I would suspect they aren't eating anything desirable, or you would have noticed things you like disappearing by now.
Atlantis14
New Member
This past May we discovered a monster Bobbit Worm in our 265 gallon tank. It was roughly 4 feet long. We've had the tank for 3 years but hadn't added any corals or fish for the past year. No idea how long it had been living in the tank - but long enough to grow to that size. In April we noticed mushroom rocks, small coral pieces and 2 Dart Fish had disappeared. Then larger pieces of coral on the sand bed were being dragged into a cave each night. We pulled the coral out and the next night they were back in the cave...damaged or completely eaten. We had a couple beefy crabs so we figured one was misbehaving. One night my husband shined a light inside the cave and saw the Bobbit Worms head and mouth. He tried homemade traps for several weeks. Finally, we dismantled the tank, one rock at a time. We had a small empty QT tank off to the side of the DT. He saw it dash into a large rock and quickly moved that rock to the QT tank. Within 20 minutes or so the monster slithered out. We're very hopeful it was the only one in the tank. Very destructive creature. When we got to the cave/den it had made we discovered skeletons of coral pieces we forgot we even had.
