eyewitnessed Bristleworm devouring zooanthus polyps

[Mike02]

I got home from work about 1/2 hr ago. was looking in my tank and saw my biggest bristleworm (maybe 3.5") devour 2 zooanthus polyps!!! I just got this fiji rock covered in small orange/green zooanthus polyps, a few days ago. any comments?!

 

[SteveP]

When it comes to livestock I say innocent until proven guilty.

This bastich is guilty. Get rid of it.

Steve
8{I

 

[Mike02]

Do they make reef-safe plastic tweezers? to be honest, im afraid of this worm. it is so damned ugly. i dont know how im gonna catch it.

 

[reefworm]

Mike,
You'll nevercatch a bristleworm with tweezers. I generally never counsel anyone to remove a bristleworm, as they are such helpful residents in a reef system, and are frequently the victims of bad press, convicted of killing something that was already dead when found, or were simply cleaning away dead tissue.

If you're absolutely certain you saw the worm munching down on live, perfectly healthy polyps, then it may be one of the rare troublemakers. Please be sure.

Traps are available commercially - you don't want to touch these guys! Or you can make your own by cutting off the top of a plastic coke bottle, and glueing it back in place w/silicone cement, but reversed - opening inside the bottle. Bait it, place near where you think its hole is, and leave it overnight. If you have shrimp, they may get to it first. Another trap is to wrap bait in a piece of old nylon stocking. Their legs will get caught in the material and can then be removed w/tweezers or tongs.

Please do make sure you've got him dead to rights before taking action.

regards,
rw

 

[Mike02]

One of those polyps might've been dead, but the other looked alive. Both were closed. In that section of the rock, there were about 6 polyps, none of which ive seen opened since Friday (when i got the rock). But this evening one of them were open and most of the others looked alived, just not opened. Alive because they have color (including the one that got eaten. Being closed doesnt mean they were dead. Everyday i see more and more polyps opened up on the rock. I saw this very same bristleworm eat a tiny live serpent starfish that came in as a hitchhiker on a florida rock. Just as i spotted this cool little starfish, i saw the bristleworm devour it in a single swoop.

 

[davelin315]

For some reason, I seem to never have any adverse reactions to touching corals that sting, or touching bristle worms. I always used to reach into my tank and smoosh them with my fingers (little did I know that the bits and pieces would reproduce). Now that I'm more edumacated a la Homer Simpson, I would still probably reach in and smoosh it to make more bristle worms! Anyways, on to the point. I would just pick your rock up off the substrate (I'm assuming it's on the bottom, but it may not be) because you've placed it where the bristleworms live. By moving it up, they're less likely to have a polyp snack cake, and leave it alone. If you have a concern about them climbing up and munching on corals, then buy a banded coral shrimp, or a hawkfish, and then when they leave the safety of the sand to adventure on the live rock in a quest for corals, they'll get eaten. The only thing I have on the bottom is a few mushrooms that fell down, and some xenia that are being culled and attached to rock for trading for the most part, and I have a banded coral shrimp which roams the tank during the night looking for wanderers. I started doing this after seeing a couple of leather corals I had become worm food when I buried their stalks in the substrate.

 

[Mike02]

Dave, i think i read somewhere that the worms in the rocks are worse then the ones in the substrate. thats only becuz corals are on the rocks?? in my tank, all the worms are in the rocks, because i have no substrate. ive seen this particular worm at the very top of the tank and ive seen it reach stretched out as far as it can go, grabbing hair algae off the glass. when i first got this FL rock (it has a bivalve attached to the rock), the worm was trying to get in its shell but it couldnt. The bivalve is still alive and apparently doing well.

 

[davelin315]

I don't know if it's a fact, but I think that's why. I've never had problems with bristleworms attacking corals above the substrate, but if you don't have one, then I would assume they would migrate to anywhere they could be safe. I'm sure there are tons of them in my rock as well, but the bigger ones are in the substrate. I know some people don't advocate banded coral shrimp, but I would toss one in there. I'm a big fan of what they can do for your tank, and I've never had any problems with them.

 

[stevemcadoo]

If it is Florida rock you have a very bad critter and need to get him out now. We have a bristle worm that lives in and under rocks known here as a fire worm. It has whitish bumps that turn into big puffs of very painful stingers! and they get very big. I have seen them 6-8 inches long. and they eat polyps and other coral like things. I think you should get rid of him. Steve

 

[Mike02]

Hi steve, i do have a small FL rock in the tank. A fairly big worm did come with it as a hitchhiker. its about 3" or so long, but this wasnt the worm i saw eat the polyps. The one that ate the polyps and the starfish, is a standard bristleworm that came with my indo-pacific rock. The worm that came on the FL rock looks a little different than the regular bristleworms. It moves alot faster and is brown, but it seems harmless as far as i can tell. actually im not sure if its a bristleworm, i'll have to get another look at it. Meanwhile, i havent seen the indo-pacific bristleworm eat anymore polyps. Its crawled over that rock with the small fiji polyps but didnt eat any of them. i saw it later eating red hair algae.

 

[Grandczar]

Get a long stick and just "wack" it on the head. HTH.... hahha

but seriously have you tried spearing the lil bastrd... If not you may want to grab my neon dottyback from me "if" I ever catch it.
I seen some bristles on his head a week ago from one of his attempts... hehh