Worm ID.....

Discussion in 'Inverts' started by blackraven1425, May 22, 2010.

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  1. inwall75

    inwall75 Giant Squid

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    I've never heard of a Eunice with only 3 tentacles. With that said, I'm not a worm expert by any stretch of the imagination. If it's a Eunice, it will be VERY FAST and you will not get him by hand. The soda bottle trick would be a better idea. To give you an idea of speed, watch this.

    http://www.oceanfootage.com/video_clips/LF06_014
     
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  3. blackraven1425

    blackraven1425 Giant Squid

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    Ugh......I was setting up a trap, and I noticed one of those monster snail-eating flatworms in the tank. It's about 2 quarters in surface area....
     
  4. inwall75

    inwall75 Giant Squid

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    Bummer. At least polyclad flatworms are fairly slow.
     
  5. Renee@LionfishLair

    Renee@LionfishLair 3reef Sponsor

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    We may not be able to see the 4th/5th. I bet it's there somewhere. If you see it go under a rock, get ready with some tweezers and lift the rock up. Mine is always right there when I pick his rock up... he builds sand piles with web around all his little entrances. They always have a kazillion entrances. I have a pico tank that I keep one in.
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2010
  6. blackraven1425

    blackraven1425 Giant Squid

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    It doesn't matter when they're in a spot where chopsticks don't work :p


    I'm seriously considering curing some new (base!) LR and sand, and just redoing the darned thing.....I have so many hitchhikers, and I haven't been able to permanently deal with any of them. I still have gorilla crabs (hardly any now, but still there), a couple of stone crabs, all these damned worms, aiptasia (Joe's Juice kills them, but they just come back every time), these random bristleworms, the flatworm, ich (damned goby ended up living and ruining the 2-month quarantine), cyano on that one spot (chopsticks didn't help...TY for that btw), dinos are showing up on top of the powerhead outlets.....it's seriously neverending, and I'm pretty sure it stems from one bad choice in rock.
     
  7. inwall75

    inwall75 Giant Squid

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    Hang in there. I can hear the frustration in your voice but this hobby is 50% frustration and 50% exhiliration. Maybe recure it a little at a time in a separate bucket.
     
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  9. blackraven1425

    blackraven1425 Giant Squid

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    I'm not infecting new rock with a drop of water from this tank if I go that route lol
     
  10. blackraven1425

    blackraven1425 Giant Squid

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    Eh, I kinda missed the point of what you said last night inwall. So, do you really think recuring the rock would do anything for the "many hitchhikers" dilemma? I just figure that if I cure 2-3 pieces and put them back in the tank, they'll end up covered in everything again because of the rocks that would be uncured. I definitely have a breeding population of the gorillas, which is what makes getting rid of them such a problem.
     
  11. LeslieH

    LeslieH Spanish Shawl Nudibranch

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    Hi there - got your message. It is indeed a species of Eunice and should have 5 head appendages but occasionally they lose some to predators or a genetic defect. Other members of the family have only 1 or 3 appendages as adults.

    Don't panic about it being in your tank. This particular species seems to be fairly harmless. Most eunicids feed on detritus, dead animals, algae, and smaller organisms like other worms & crustaceans. Large ones will go after corals but we really don't know if that's their natural diet or if most tanks simply don't have enough of the right kind of food for them so they start eating anything edible. Being attracted to rotting flesh most of them will go after dead or dying fish. Healthy tank fish should be safe - only the very largest species hunt fish in the wild and they do not show up in reef tanks.
     
  12. inwall75

    inwall75 Giant Squid

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    I'm not going to get into naming names. However, with the problems you're having I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say that you purchased live rock from a vendor that plants base rock in the ocean near Florida for a couple of years and then sells it as live rock.

    Have you considered something like this. (I used to cure a thousand pounds of LR at a time....this is just on a smaller scale).....

    Get a bucket of tank water, cover it with eggcrate or a metal crate, put an airstone in the bucket to offgas CO2 from the seltzer water.
    Fill a small pump mister with saltwater.
    Pour a small amount of seltzer water into obvious holes and crevices, let sit for a few minutes. All sorts of things will start popping out and falling into the bucket. (If the surface of the LR starts to dry out, mist it with the mister). Look at the various crabs and worms in the bucket and pick out the ones you want and put them back into your tank. Do what you want to the rest. (I had mantis, triggers, and puffers so the crabs became food. I keep all worms but Eunice and fireworms). Put rock into a clean bucket of tank water until you've gone through most of your rock in your tank so crabs don't move to the now cleaned rock). One most/all of the rock has been cleaned, move all the rock back to the tank and reaquascape.