HELP!! I have a SEA MONSTER in my tank!!!

[moy]

I have this long worm in my tank. Looks like a Centipede, hary, lot of small legs and a hariy mouth. Only seems to come out at night. I saw it eating at one of my soft corals that was dying off anyway...
Is he safe to have in my reef tank??
What should i do??? HELP!!

 

[blutang]

Sounds like Bristle Worms.

 

[thor]

if it is a bristle worm they can be very dangerous to your coral make sure you get it out with a net 'cause they sting i really hate them

 

[texasreefrat]

DO NOT TOUCH IT WITH BARE HANDS!

 

[moy]

Guys!! How the heck do i get the Bristle worm out, he's lightning speed fast!! As soon as he see's me he bolts back into his hole!!
WHAT DO I DO???!!!!

 

[novice150]

Those things are nasty little ********!! We had one in our 300 reef, and the way I caught it was wait till the lights went off. Give it about an hour, then find it with a flashlight. Once it was all stretched out and lookin for food, I grabbed it with a pair of feeding tongs. He got a oneway trip to the toilet!!

 

[moy]

Thanks for the advise.
But I really doubt ill be able to do that.. This one seems to be very smart, and he's FAST.. I mean REALLY Fast, just the sight of my shadow and all all see is the live whirling around from his run back to his hole..
Anyone elese have any other ideas and how to get rid of the PEST!!!

 

[dburr]

They do make traps. Or you can make one.
It's a tube, say 2 or 3 inch dia. caps on both sides. One side has a small hole. Put the food in, he eats it, now he's to big to get out, simple.
The worms are only bad when they get big.
They are scavengers and keep the tank clean.
I've never heard them eating corel... but if it was dying anyway, he's just doing his job.

 

[moy]

Some just told me they are coral eaters!!!
I haven't seem mine fully out of its hole yet, but from what i've seen his ATLEAST 2 FEET in length, without having his whole body out of the whole....
Traps??? Where??

 

[wallda]

Wow, 2 feet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have seen traps at LFS but nothing that could deal with 2 feet!!! Best of luck, maybe you could remove the piece of LR that he is living in?????

 

[dburr]

LFS or online.

 

[d-chan]

ewww. the thought of a bristle worm scares me. anyone know prevention tips?

 

[wallda]

I have an idea for you. Take the piece of live rock he is living in and put it in freshwater. It should drive him out of the rock. Than carefully pick him up and scare little kids with him.....lol j/k..... hope that works

 

[jakob4001]

yep, cure your rock at home TOO in seperate container like 5 gallon bucket...DON'T need whole set up tank just for that; look at what most LFS's do, small "tidepool" w/ some sorta water circulation; or could freshwater dip all your live rock; may cure some things, but should cause bristle works to leave the rock; especially a large one like that; we aquired rock from someone that had had it for over a year & didnt know it was in there; ours seems to be about 1.5 feet long; does not seem to harm ANYTHING as of yet;has been in tank for about 6 months or more; we think it's very cool...irredescent & interesting to watch the arrow crab play w/ it when it bothers him; yep, sometimes they will eat coral though, but more times than not, tend to be good scavengers as long as do not achieve pest levels; if you feed at night, it will probably go after the easy meal instead

 

[swtanks]

If you catch it, send it to me.
I have hundreds of these in my reef tank ranging in size from 1/2" to 6 inches.
They are excellent scavengers and sand stirrirs. They are beneficial to a tank. The odds of having a coral eating one are so small I doubt you have to worry.
2 feet is huge. The largest I have ever seen in a reef tank was about 15" long.

 

[fshhub]

i'd leave him in there, because, they are benificial,
BUT if you want to get rid of him, here is an easy trap
old nylon(stockings), put some food(shrimp or so) in it, put it in the tank, with fishing line tied to it, leave line out of tank, then, he will go after the food, not noticing the nylons(they feed by olifactory i belive, anyhow, his bristles will get caught in the nylon, lift out by line and
VOILA!
BUT DO NOT TOUCH!!!!

 

[fshhub]

oh yeah, theoretically, it should work, supposedly it did for a friend of mine, makes 120% sense, but I never had the desire to get rid of one personally
anyhow it is easy enough and cheap enough to try
HTH and good luck