gut churning bristle worm

[hillegom]

That thing is sick!!
Hope I never have one

[untamed]

Everyone who ever put decent live rock into their tank has eunicid worms. Some of them are really small, while others grow to monster movie size. If you look closely enough, you'll see them. The largest I've ever kept was about the thickness of my little finger. He was vegetarian and I never did get to see how long he actually was....at least 12".

While commonly called bristle worms, eunicid worms are quite different. 5 distinct "antennae"...nasty mandibles...very fast moving...rarely seen completely out of a hole...and centipede like legs...usually shiny segmented body. They can be problematic..but they can just as easily exist in your tank for decades and you wouldn't know it.

Old picture...but still a classic.

[bullit67]

YAh i had a eunicid worm in my tank it grew to almost 6 feet long fiji rock is real bad for them

[BlueAbyss]

OMG, I looked at that coldwater tank page and it's AMAZING! I would love to do something like that some day... I actually considered doing a yellow perch tank, though I'd have to get a permit to collect them.

And these worms are sick. I had better freaking NOT get one of these in my tank. It would probably make me end my reefing days

[Flash]

so... is there a way to remove worms like that?

[o.c.d.]

From reading steve's experience, you have too get them out in one piece, they will segment off and the pieces will stay alive and regenerate back into a worm.

[bullit67]

Well there is a way to every thing I tried many ways to remove the one I had but they are smart and very elusive the one I had only came out at night the tank had to be completely dark along with the rest of the house if any light was getting to the tank at all it would not come out of it hidy hole. Oh and by the way even though it was almost 6 feet long I still have no idea where it was hiding during the day. What I ended up doing was going to princess auto and buying a long pair of forceps. Then on one dark Saturday night we put my plan into motion I got very thing ready befor the light went out opened all the doors on my canopy put a salt pail on the floor so I had somthing to drop it in got out my trusty flash light with a red lens the turned out the lights. The wife and I sat in the bedroom and waited for a while we would check the tank about every 15-20 min after about an hour and a half still no sign of it. At the 2 hour mark I went to check by myself and Ill be there it was sitting on the sand right in front of the reef I grabbed my forceps and went for it HOLY HELL I GOT IT !!!!! I yelled for the wife to come out and turn on some lights so I could see what I was doing but she could not hear me after about 10 min of battling with the worm ( I do mean battling this thing was pulling back so hard I could not lock the forceps and the force bruised my thumb and finger ) I had to let it go but I was able to grab it again this time I locked the forceps and just as I did that my wife comes out of the bedroom to see whats taking me so long she turned on some light I was able to yank it out of the tank and put it in the salt pail.