Still kicking myself over introducing live rock that was not completely cured. I have a plague of these worms in my tank - I estimate 25 - 50 of them. I thought they were eunicid worms but now I'm not entirely sure. I think that worm family covers hundreds of worms so Idk.
I tried manually extracting them with tweezers but gave up because of the sheer numbers. They grow sickeningly fast Some are 6 - 8 inches long already and they were accidentally introduced around May sometime. Some might be clocking an inch a week. They stretch like rubber bands so I could be wrong on the actual size of these monsters.
After I gave up trying to remove them, I just started watching them do their thing. Some are very interested in the sand and sift it carefully in their tentacles. Others probe around on the rocks. For the most part, they like to stay rooted in a hole. However, they wander around sometimes.
Weirdest thing to me is the tentacles. As they got bigger, I noticed they were feathered. This made me wonder if they capture food from the water column. Then I wondered if they were just simple scavengers and not going to be like bobbit worms and destroy my tank. I feed small amounts every other day - am careful not to over feed. I'm not sure what their food source is besides well scavenging. I did see some around my coral and jumped the gun thinking they were attacking it. Now I'm not sure at all that that was the case.
Based on the description above, I am interested in opinions whether these worms pose a significant threat. Would they be equivalent to bristle worms?
As a side note, I found a hitch hiker crab molt. I didn't snap a picture of it but it was dime sized, white and had black tipped claws. I studied the claws and they didn't have that flat part (like an emerald crab) but appeared to be sharp points. As this stage of the game, I'm excited with this development because I hope the crab is predatory and will hunt the worms. Any chance of that happening?
Below are pics of my tank squatting worms.
I tried manually extracting them with tweezers but gave up because of the sheer numbers. They grow sickeningly fast Some are 6 - 8 inches long already and they were accidentally introduced around May sometime. Some might be clocking an inch a week. They stretch like rubber bands so I could be wrong on the actual size of these monsters.
After I gave up trying to remove them, I just started watching them do their thing. Some are very interested in the sand and sift it carefully in their tentacles. Others probe around on the rocks. For the most part, they like to stay rooted in a hole. However, they wander around sometimes.
Weirdest thing to me is the tentacles. As they got bigger, I noticed they were feathered. This made me wonder if they capture food from the water column. Then I wondered if they were just simple scavengers and not going to be like bobbit worms and destroy my tank. I feed small amounts every other day - am careful not to over feed. I'm not sure what their food source is besides well scavenging. I did see some around my coral and jumped the gun thinking they were attacking it. Now I'm not sure at all that that was the case.
Based on the description above, I am interested in opinions whether these worms pose a significant threat. Would they be equivalent to bristle worms?
As a side note, I found a hitch hiker crab molt. I didn't snap a picture of it but it was dime sized, white and had black tipped claws. I studied the claws and they didn't have that flat part (like an emerald crab) but appeared to be sharp points. As this stage of the game, I'm excited with this development because I hope the crab is predatory and will hunt the worms. Any chance of that happening?
Below are pics of my tank squatting worms.
