Is this a killer?

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Pepsi

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Oct 11, 2013
Messages
56
Location
Essex, UK

Found this huge worm and next to it an empty shell. Has this thing killed my hermit crab? Do I need to get it out of my tank and if so, how?
 
Another empty shell, not sure whether it's a hermit crab or snail. Help!
 
Bristle worm. cleaning up already dead crabs/snails. Looks like you have an algae issue. And if your crabs and snails are dying all of a sudden you need to get all your parameters tested.
 
Bristle worm. cleaning up already dead crabs/snails. Looks like you have an algae issue. And if your crabs and snails are dying all of a sudden you need to get all your parameters tested.

+1

The bristle worms are scavengers. There is some other reason for the die off of your inverts. Have you tested your parameters recently? What's your salinity at?
 
Definitely not my inverts dying. I have another 6 hermits and 4 snails who are still alive. All the empty shells are found in the same corner where the worm is appearing. As soon as I stick my hand in the water this worm retracts back into the rock faster than any bristle I've seen. All params are fine (though not sure whether I'm happy with the temp sitting close to 30, even though the heater is set at 26)

I know you can't really tell in the vid, but the worm has a shiny, iridescence to it. Could it be a Eunicid worm?
 
Definitely not my inverts dying. I have another 6 hermits and 4 snails who are still alive. All the empty shells are found in the same corner where the worm is appearing. As soon as I stick my hand in the water this worm retracts back into the rock faster than any bristle I've seen. All params are fine (though not sure whether I'm happy with the temp sitting close to 30, even though the heater is set at 26)

I know you can't really tell in the vid, but the worm has a shiny, iridescence to it. Could it be a Eunicid worm?

To me it looks more like a eunicid than a bristle worm. If it has iridescence I'd say definitely a bad guy. Can you remove the rock it is in.
 
Removing it will be a pain. It's right at the bottom and is probably the largest piece of rock I got. Removing will mean everything else comes out and it will need replacing. I'm picking up my RO water from my LFS tomorrow. Probably pick up 3lbs of rock while I'm there.
 
That worm has to come out one way or another. You will have to try and catch him then. If not you will eventually lose fish and coral to it once it gets bigger.
 
I have finally found out what it is! It's a fulgida worm. They secrete a jelly like substance when they kill, you can see some in the vid I posted. Definitely a baddy. Will do my utmost to get him out of there. I'm watching my conch in that very same corner right now and want to go rescue him before he gets munched!
 
I have finally found out what it is! It's a fulgida worm. They secrete a jelly like substance when they kill, you can see some in the vid I posted. Definitely a baddy. Will do my utmost to get him out of there. I'm watching my conch in that very same corner right now and want to go rescue him before he gets munched!

Sounds like a "fun" hitchhiker lol. Good luck removing it!
 
The more I read about this guy, the quicker I want him out! I don't want any more fatalities. :(
 
Update: on Wednesday, I couldn't see the worm at all and we proceeded with our regular water change. That evening, my other half saw it under the blue lights - it stretched across from one side of the tank to the other so I would say it was minimum a foot long!!! Thursday morning, I found a snail hanging of the rock encased in slime - I grabbed the snail and put him down the front (I'll let the hermits finish him off...) and proceeded in taking out the rock in which the worm resided. Tried a few things. There was no sign of the devil worm himself, just several bristle worms. Rung him to tell him what I did, he told me to get rid of the rock and go buy some more (yay, permission to shop!) so I went out and bought 7 pound of new live rock. Happy that the worm had been evicted I noticed this morning that the snail I rescued was happily grazing on some rock. The worm had paralysed him, but I actually rescued him in time! It took him about 24 hours to recover from the slime.

If anyone else comes across this worm a few tips from my experience:

Don't touch the mucus/slime with your bare hands - I did the first time round and my hand tingled for hours after. I was constantly opening and clenching my fist as it felt like prolonged pins and needles.

Trying to catch him with tweezers is futile. He is too fast, there is a thread on reef Central where someone made a trap and manage to catch it. I never contemplated in making one, but it doesn't look particularly taxing if you have the equipment. (I don't even own a drill)

Easiest way to eradicate is simply removing his home. I tried the break up the rock, but all I got was rubble instead of nice big pieces, so I stuck the rubble in my filtration system and chucked out the rest. I couldn't spend forever searching for him.

Hope this helps anyone who encounters the same beastie, I hope you never do...
 
Oh man sounds like a nightmare. But it seems fitting since yesterday was Halloween :) glad you managed to get rid of him!
 
I found a much smaller worm in one of my rocks and put it in a bucket of fresh water and whole bunch of things almost instantly came out! They don't like the fresh water ;)
 
The video shows that the bristles are actually legs. For the folks watching that is. If you get a chance to watch this worm up close you will see it has eyes, and it's lightening fast.
I don't think it can kill something as fast moving as a crab though. He's wiping out your snail population.
I got a good shot of one in my refugium a few years back-
img_2706588_0_1dad27c06090308555a314a8b3c6f20a.jpg





.
 
The video shows that the bristles are actually legs. For the folks watching that is. If you get a chance to watch this worm up close you will see it has eyes, and it's lightening fast. I don't think it can kill something as fast moving as a crab though. He's wiping out your snail population. I got a good shot of one in my refugium a few years back- .

He WAS wiping out my snails...mr evil worm is no more.



Wouldn't flushing your live rock with freshwater just kill every living creature in it thus rendering it useless? I did find somewhere that said use carbonated water and stick the rock back in, but it sounded dodgy to me. I rather not take any chances.
 
This was just one piece of live rock and more of a freshwater dip - yes, I suppose it would kill everything in it but this was one piece out of about 60pounds in total. I wouldn't do all my rock of course :)
 
Unfortunately the rock this worm lived in was like 6-7lbs. That's more than 10% of my rock!
 
He WAS wiping out my snails...mr evil worm is no more.



Wouldn't flushing your live rock with freshwater just kill every living creature in it thus rendering it useless? I did find somewhere that said use carbonated water and stick the rock back in, but it sounded dodgy to me. I rather not take any chances.
What makes rock useful is not the living creatures on it, besides bacteria that is. I would think that carbonated water would do the same thing. the only difference is carbonation. It's already void of salt.
 
So freshwater or carbonated water wouldn't kill the bacteria in the rock? That's good to know!
 
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