help! something eating coral!

[manners]

i noticed about two weeks ago that there was a hole in my leather toadstool and just two days ago i noticed that the hole was going a purple colour around it. i dont no what caused the hole originaly but last night i caught a worm eating it. ive seen about 3 or 4 worms in my tank 1 huge one (ive only seen about 4" of him)and some significantly smaller ones.
are the worms what ate the toadstool originaly or did the just go after it because of the decaying hole?
ive seen the traps in stores for theses guys but there is no way mine are going to fit in one of those
this is the best pick i could get he is blue and has 2 rows of white furry spikes (they rarely come out in the lightand bow front makes for crappy pics) you can see a leg of my brittle right under/beside it
any one have an idea on what it is or what to do?

 

[manners]

also what can i do for the coral??

 

[flower]

Toad stools are very tough and will re-grow. You must get the worm out. I think it is a coral eating Bobbitt worm.
I had to remove every rock and examine it, and dig at the tiny holes to find a coral eating worm in my tank, when I found it, I used tweezers to remove it. I think they sting like a bristle worm so don't touch it with your fingers.

 

[reefaholic33]

Bobbit worm or Eunice worm for sure, mine loved my leathers. Good news is IME the leather fed him for a long time and kept him away from other corals, hopefully yours is the same. Bad news is they are tough to get out. I have never heard or read of a trap working with these guys. IME it is impossible to get close enough with tweezers to pluck him out and they can be ripped in half and grow a new worm, and they can leave you in some pain.
Here is most likely will need to be done-
They seem to have a "home rock" they will live in it during the day and you will never see him. You are going to have to do some night watching and find out which rock it is. I found if you shine your flashlight at his nasty face it will scare him back to his home rock. You then must take this rock out after seeing him scared back in it. Then you have a couple options. Put the rock in some very high salinity water and eventually he should come out. Or if yours is as stubborn as mine, take a chisel and hammer to the rock and get him out.
Anyway good luck and don't waste much time, he will keep eating that leather every night I bet. Good news is that leather can be chopped all up and grow back, they are tough as nails. You might want to make sure it has some decent flow on it right now and maybe run some carbon. Hope this helps, here is a link to mine I just caught.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/vb/s...ht=bobbit+worm

 

[manners]

got him
i was told the easy way to get them out is to watch for there "home rock" and smash it open so i did it and saw 4 of them.
how fast do they multiply?

 

[jrandolph1]

Nice Job!!! I had one that was about 6 inches long and when it was spawning (spreading this nasty cloud of crap in my tank) me and my wife grabbed him with a pair of tongs LoL. It was HUGE!!!

 

[ashley84]

i just pulled two of those outta my tank but they were in the sand so it was a little easier..thats a bobbit worm?? thank god i got mine out.what i would do when u add corals is dip them in this stuff called coral revive...you'll see all the bugs n worms crawl out! didnt hurt my corals they opened up later that night...

 

[reefkprz]

that looks like a regular bristle worm to me.
here this is an image of a bobbit worm

 

[flower]

That picture is a great close up. A regular bristle worm is two toned red and tan, they are small. They are part of the CUC and you want them in the tank.
Manners, it is very hard to tell from your picture if it is a regular bristle or a Bobbitt worm because of the size. Finding 4 toghether seems more than likely the bristle.
The Bobbitt worms are usually grey, and look like a long centipede. They are much larger than a bristle worm.

 

[jrod4u]

ummmmm, gross ;-)

 

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by Flower
http:///forum/post/3232041

That picture is a great close up. A regular bristle worm is two toned red and tan, they are small. .
tell that one, to my 20 inch bristle worm in my reef.

bristle worms can actually get quite large. and since there are many species of brislte worm (about 10,000 species) I guess I would have to ask which species you consider regular.
the one pictured by the OP looks to me to be a Eurythoe complanata. one of the most commonly found in our aquariums. (in that case it would just be eatting tghe dead flesh of the coral and bnot actually preying on the coral itself) but it could also be Hermodice carunculata (caribbien fire worm) which is known to be predatory on corals (usually sps and gorgonians) but will often prey on indo-pacific soft corals when relegated to an aquarium.