Help Needed! Can Worms Regenerate Their Body Parts?

oceanlover

Member
I have had a very large Caribbean Fireworm (just a big bristleworm) in my aquarium. [Cranberry nicely identified it for me in my 7-31-08 post called "Yuck! What is this HUGE Disgusting Worm".] It has become an obsession for me to look for it before I will touch the aquarium.
So the other night, the worm came out to the front of the aquarium. My husband grabbed it as we had someone who said they'd like to have him in their enormous tank. Well guess what, the worm pulled back and it was strong. It is a rather large worm, at least 12 inches, and I am guessing it had its tail locked into the rock. Anyway, the head popped off.

About one inch of the head popped off and the rest of the lengthy worm pulled back into the rock!
Although I didn't want it in my aquarium, we didn't mean to kill it. I put the head in my quarantine tank and I am pretty sure it is dead and not regenerating.
But now I am worried about the rest of the worm. I don't want it decaying and ruining the water quality. But the body is inside a rock that also houses my beautiful hot pink anemone so I can't remove the rock from the tank. And I sure as heck don't want it growing another head becuase it will be one very angry worm after being decapitated.
I know some land worms can regenerate their bodies if the original body gets into pieces. Is there a worm-experienced person out there who would know if the headless worm will regenerate?
 

draconis321

Member
well worm are know to be asexual reproducers and that use fragmentingso even if the head looks bad theres a good chance that u will get to worm and if the head does not grow a body there is a very good chance that the vice versa will happen and if they both die i'm pretty sure that all u mitgh have to deal with is a spike in ammonia just do a water change and try to siphone out the body
 

fraggle_a

Member
Correct.
General, one side of the worm will live.
I wouldnt worry about it decaying and causing problems. If you have a cleanup crew of any kind, they will find the body soon enough.
 
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