• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

giant bristleworm: sneak into the nursey and steal & eat your firstborn variety?

C

Candi

I know the majority of reefers say to let bristleworms be, that they fit a niche in our tanks and don't cause any issues. For the most part I say live and let live, with the exception of what my 6 lines catch and make no attempt to rid my tanks of them.

Until now.

I have a monster in my tank. I'm painfully awful at guessing sizes of things in the tank but this is huge in bristleworm terms. I have never seen it fully out in the open, only seeing the first 1/2 of it's body, or it streched (well over 6" I'd guess) between 2 holes and neither end showing. I'd say thickness wise it's about the size of my pinky finger. It is not colored like the standard bristleworms in my tank and is blue/purple with white bristles. The thing is the reason my tank is full of algae, I coudn't find a good fitting pair of gloves and I sure wasn't reaching in there with bare hands and this critter. It lives in one rock, I've only ever seen it coming out of one hole. I will try to get more photos of it, he's fast, very fast, and my camera is old and junky so it's hard to tell size form this one but the bristleworm near him is a pretty darn good size and he dwarfs it.

I posed on RC and noone had a idea what it was other then an over grown bristleworm, possibly a fireworm.

I want it out. I need ideas how to do that. I ordered one of those bristleworm traps online, laughed when it came yesterday as he's bigger then it is and would likely eat the whole trap before trying to crawl inside ;)

The rock has some red shrooms on it I don't to hurt or try to remove if possible. I had my gloved arm holding 10" tweezers in there last night but the one time I got close enough to grab him he was to fast for me.

Mike, this is the rock that came from your tank... ever seen any of these things before? Want your rock back? LOL

hellworm.jpg
 
T

TripsieD

I wonder if Merv's soda bottle trick might do the trick(without cutting the top off)? You might have to stay up late to yank the bottle though.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
You won't hurt a mushroom with a short fresh water dip. You could also blast fresh water in with a turkey baster. That's probably the best way to cause him to flee his home. We took one worm out that was nearly 14" long once. Took the rock out of the tank and grabbed him with chop sticks. Bear in mind that tweezers could "break" him, which would probably cause you to be the proud owner of two of the darn things!

Good luck getting him out!
 
C

Candi

Thanks for the ideas, and the warning... two is definitely what I don't want LOL maybe I can pull the rock into a rubbermaid and try blasting some FW in the hole or doing a FW dip.

normal sized ones are good scavengers, but I have plenty of those and hermits as well (not even enough for them to scavenge, they decided to eat my macro "shaving bush" last night)... something as big as this worm is eating something to survive, so far my corals look ok but he's likely getting hungry LOL
 
I

IrradiatedReef

If it is not to hard to get the rock out, you could do a salt dip which will make him flee the rock quickly. Submerse the new rock into a bucket filled with saltwater with a specific gravity of 1.035 to 1.040 for one minute. Any invertebrates including mantis shrimp, bristle worms, and crabs will quickly evacuate from the rock and into the bucket of water.

I would then re-acclimate the rock and put it back in. It will not hurt your shrooms or anything else growing on it.
 
C

Candi

awesome, sounds good as well.

for those who are of the "leave him" mentality... anyone want this critter if/when I get him out? Figure no matter what I try I'll have another container of tank water I can toss him in where he should stay alive awhile if someone wanted to get him :)
 
C

Candi

LOL

honestly though, I know it's silly to be afraid of something in your tank... but whenever I see the darn thing I about jump.

I'll attempt to get him out this weekend most likley, finally got some gloves that fit me and I must attempt to remove the algea while not scratching my whole tank (acrylic). Will take & post photos if I get him :)
 
I

IrradiatedReef

I do not blame you for wanting to get rid of it. Not one bit! Bristle worms give me the major Heebie-Jeebies!! The salt dip will definately work for you though. Inverts have a very low tolarance to high levels of salt and will boogie quickly to get away from it only to meet their demise as they swirl in the whirlpool of death.
 
S

Steve Ho

Re: giant bristleworm: sneak into the nursey and steal & eat your firstborn vari

Six inches is nothing. Check out the six foot long worm that Steve Weast found in his tank! :eek:

http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm

FWIW, I have at least one of the same worm that's in your picture that I estimate at about 8". I don't think it's caused any problems, but it is creepy looking.
 
S

Steve Ho

Re: giant bristleworm: sneak into the nursey and steal & eat your firstborn vari

Also, I've tried the hypersaline LR dip in the past, but it didn't work for me.
 
mikem

mikem

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
No wonder why wassabi has been hiding so much. Either he's scared to death or he's waiting to pounce on a good meal.
 
C

Candi

Re: giant bristleworm: sneak into the nursey and steal & eat your firstborn vari

Steve Ho said:
Six inches is nothing. Check out the six foot long worm that Steve Weast found in his tank! :eek:

http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm

FWIW, I have at least one of the same worm that's in your picture that I estimate at about 8". I don't think it's caused any problems, but it is creepy looking.
Click to expand...

Well thanks, I didn't need to sleep tonight LOL YUCK
 
C

Candi

michaelm2431 said:
No wonder why wassabi has been hiding so much. Either he's scared to death or he's waiting to pounce on a good meal.
Click to expand...

LOL Mike, maybe? Although I think "wormy" could easily eat Wasabi... anyone familiar with that episode of Sponge Bob where Sandy is going off to fight the worm that is terrorizing bikini bottom? It reminds me of that (and yes I'm an adult woman referencing sponge bob, I have a 3yr old and a wacky husband LOL)
 
T

TripsieD

Candi,

Sponge Bob rules!!! Yes, I hang out with my 6 year old neice a lot, but I'm the one who got her started lol I definitely think whoever wrote that episode has a tank or at least saw that scary posting on the site lol.

Tom
 
T

TripsieD

If she chopped it in pieces and started a 5 or 10 gallon, she could start her very own bait farm! :D :D :D (trying to find a positive here lol)

Tom
 
C

Candi

I'll be sure to keep all of your wonderful ideas in mind if/when I catch him... and will promptly bag him up for whomever wants to start that worm/bait farm LOL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top