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snapperboy

snapperboy

Member
So up until last week I thought i was doing a "passable" job on keeping my tank healthy and clean. I have been keeping most things alive, and keeping my water parameters what would be considered pristine. My only problem and only deaths have been my polyps, zoo's, and 2 pink tip anenomes. All SLOWLY dissapeared and the anenomes just died over a period of about 6 months.

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> fast forward to last Monday-Friday> over 1 week I lost my 6" croecea, 5" mexican Turbo, and 2X 3" turbos, and now my bubble has been not opening fully. After spending countless hours testing water, buying different kits, preforming 15percent h2o change/week, Even Changing salts from reef crystals to TMpro. I HAVE SOLVED MY PROBLEMS!!!!! Out of pure luck i fell asleep in front of the tank and awoke around 3AM and saw a new crab i didn't know about and THIS GUY...can you see him?
 
snapperboy

snapperboy

Member
From the picture i took above i was able to identify this Fire bristle worm that had to have come in on my LR which is from Indonesia since day 1. He has been fattening himself/herself/ ..itself on about $300 of corals, $50 clam, plus giant turbo snails.
My bubble is not looking so hot but i moved it and I think i got what was munching on it out, i still have frogspawn and a torch. So if anyone wants a coral eating, 15" snail murderer, lets trade for a frag or a few turbos. Thanks for looking and here are a few pics i just took while typing this out.




 
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scoobs

Guest
uh.. I have two in my tank about that size(that I know of) and they have never bothered anything.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
Originally Posted by Scoobs
uh.. I have two in my tank about that size(that I know of) and they have never bothered anything.

i'd look to chemical warfare before blaming a detritus eater unless you actually saw it eating LIVE corals
 
nigerbang

nigerbang

Active Member
Originally Posted by renogaw

i'd look to chemical warfare before blaming a detritus eater unless you actually saw it eating LIVE corals
Thats kinda what I was thinking...
 
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scoobs

Guest
Those type want eat corals unless its dead and thats why they get blamed a lot.. People come home and see them all in a dead coral eating and and they are like omg it killed it
 
snapperboy

snapperboy

Member
Originally Posted by renogaw

i'd look to chemical warfare before blaming a detritus eater unless you actually saw it eating LIVE corals
I seriously doubt that the 8 rocks with polyp colonies spread over a 125G tank killed eachother and left 3 turbo shells at the fireworms cave entrance.
From what I know now on this worm and reflect on what started dissapearing, he basically ate everything on the right side of my tank and slowly worked left. I never saw this thing eating anything, and its only been 2 days since i removed it, but my bubble coral is acually opening today. Only changes that have happened is the removal of this creature and a water change which is done every week anyway. I'm not mad or going to kill this worm because of its nature, but I can't explain losing what I am to anything else.
Anyway, there is a LFS in Merced, CA I am donating it to and they are going to put it in a display.
 
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scoobs

Guest
.. I am just saying they don't eat live corals unless you have one of the super rare kinds that do but most of those are 3 times wider than the one in your picture. Myself if I had it out and thought it was killing stuff i would flush it.. But thats just me
 
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scoobs

Guest
This is taken from a notable marine biologists
Good or Bad?:
This is a tough one. Historically, bristleworms were all considered to be bad. Most literature warns that they can attack and eat clams, anemones, corals and even fish.
Recently, most hobbyists have come to the conclusion that small bristle worms pose no threat to other tank inhabitants and are in fact good scavengers and add to the biodiversity of the tank. You can even buy bristleworms from some sources.
Even large bristleworms are starting to be better understood. Although it appears that some large bristleworms can be aggressive predators, these seem to be in the minority. Many large bristleworms seem to fall into the harmless scavenger category. The one in the picture above has been in one of my tanks for several years. It is about 1/3" across and at least 12" long although I have only seen about 6" of it. It lives next to a group of clams and has never shown any interest in bothering the other creatures in the tank. He is a very impressive looking specimen in his own right.

Maybe you are right and just got a bad one.. That really stinks if you did sorry for your loses either way :)
This is the worm he is talking about
 
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