Snow_Phoenix Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Hi, I just discovered that I have a black and white striped eunicid worm living in one of the LR pieces that house a mixed colony of zoas, two RFAs and one ball nem. Since the rock is valuable due to the amount of life covering it, I don't want to toss it out. I was wondering if a coral dip in Revive or Rx will ferret the worm out? I'm asking because I want to know if it's worth buying a bottle of dip just for one pest. The worm so far hasn't munched on any corals, but based on the size of his head peeking out of the rock, he's fairly large and creepy-looking. Any advice is appreciated. Link to comment
Halo_003 Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Might be a bad idea, might not. It may be worth trying dipping the whole rock in 50/50 peroxide and SW, I don't imagine the worm would like it and it might leave the rock, just a thought. If you do, make sure to rinse in SW before returning to the tank. Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted February 21, 2015 Author Share Posted February 21, 2015 Might be a bad idea, might not. It may be worth trying dipping the whole rock in 50/50 peroxide and SW, I don't imagine the worm would like it and it might leave the rock, just a thought. If you do, make sure to rinse in SW before returning to the tank. Okay, will do. Some online sources from other sites say you can try club soda, but once again that's a 50/50. As long as the thing doesn't come bursting out of its hole when I inject its burrow with either peroxide or some solution, then I think it -should- be fine. Link to comment
WibblyPig Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 If you know which hole he's living in, you could try plugging it with epoxy. There is the chance that there are multiple exits but that would be the most non-invasive way. If you're going to pull the rock, club soda and a syringe seems to be the best method. Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted February 21, 2015 Author Share Posted February 21, 2015 If you know which hole he's living in, you could try plugging it with epoxy. There is the chance that there are multiple exits but that would be the most non-invasive way. If you're going to pull the rock, club soda and a syringe seems to be the best method. Okay, I'll try the epoxy method first. Or can I use super strong glue (like how I smother my aiptasia) instead and hope for the best? Link to comment
WibblyPig Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 I'd use the epoxy - it's structural. Link to comment
Steve973 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 I would not like to use epoxy, since rock is rather porous, and a worm can stretch itself out and, quite likely, find an escape. You want to get this thing before it wreaks havoc on your tank and its inhabitants! There are quite a few things that you might be able to do. I'd try a few things, and probably in this order: Fresh water dip Coral RX dip peroxide dip Whatever you end up doing, I'd want to confirm that the worm is out of the rock. If you don't have a confirmed capture/kill, you might be quite sorry later. I had a eunicid that was maybe a centimeter long and hair-thin, and then I forgot about it. It ate pretty much everything in the tank, other than the fish, and it was creating so much waste that I had lots of algae problems. I had hundreds of micro stars, both brittle and asterina, and they all disappeared. I had nice zoa colonies that also all disappeared. I think that this is something that you don't want to leave to chance. Edit: when I finally captured it, it was eighteen inches long! It was living and growing, for most of its life, in an 18 gallon via aqua tank. Nuts! Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 I would not like to use epoxy, since rock is rather porous, and a worm can stretch itself out and, quite likely, find an escape. You want to get this thing before it wreaks havoc on your tank and its inhabitants! There are quite a few things that you might be able to do. I'd try a few things, and probably in this order: Fresh water dip Coral RX dip peroxide dip Whatever you end up doing, I'd want to confirm that the worm is out of the rock. If you don't have a confirmed capture/kill, you might be quite sorry later. I had a eunicid that was maybe a centimeter long and hair-thin, and then I forgot about it. It ate pretty much everything in the tank, other than the fish, and it was creating so much waste that I had lots of algae problems. I had hundreds of micro stars, both brittle and asterina, and they all disappeared. I had nice zoa colonies that also all disappeared. I think that this is something that you don't want to leave to chance. Edit: when I finally captured it, it was eighteen inches long! It was living and growing, for most of its life, in an 18 gallon via aqua tank. Nuts! This post is quite delayed but just a quick update: I ended up getting rid of the whole rock. Link to comment
Steve973 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Are you sure that the worm was in the rock that you removed? Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 Are you sure that the worm was in the rock that you removed? Yep. Saw his feelers when I got rid of it. Decided it wasn't worth taking the risk of having such a deadly worm in my tank. But now I have a giant six inch bristleworm living in one of my other rocks - so that's a more pressing concern now. Link to comment
Steve973 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 I wouldn't worry about it if the worm is a bristle worm. They are great scavengers, and when I set up a tank that uses dry (reef saver) rock and bagged sand, I always introduce them. I tend to avoid things with claws, and I find that bristle worms are some of the better custodians, along with micro and mini brittle stars, and even asterinas, as a complement to snails. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Tossed the rock eh? Seems excessive considering there were so many other options. Anyways, hope that nothing else bad shows up. I think it would be cool if I had one of those worms to stick it in the sump for a year or 2 so I could have one of those cool stories about pulling a huge worm from the tank. Hahaha. Of course that would suck if I forgot and stuck something else in the sump though... Link to comment
Sunstar Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Bristle worms are great. I value them greatly as a CUC. As steve said, I add them to my tank. Link to comment
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