Oh ****, baby bobbits. Arrow crab?

[Tired]

So I've got some really nice-looking live rock. Covered in macros, there's at least one chiton, some micro brittles, all the good stuff. And lots of worms. 

Well, I just saw a worm dangling out of a rock, went "huh, it has feelers. I better take a closer look- aw hell, it's iridescent". 

 

I do not want bobbit worms. I do, however, want this rock. So, these are tiny- most are under 2 inches, and are very thin. What eats worms this size, that I could stick in my 5gal quarantine tank? A small arrow crab seems appropriate, I hear those will eat worms. I don't want a fish in this tank. I also don't want to dip the rock, I don't want to kill everything else that's on it. 

 

If nothing else, does anyone know if there's any way to detach a chiton without hurting it? I could just transplant the good stuff elsewhere, I suppose. 

[William]

Arrow crab, you could also use one of those bristle worm traps to try and decrease/ lower the population. 

[Tired]

Would those traps work? 

 

And, just to double-check: these are bobbits, right? I pulled out half a dozen and put 'em in a bowl. 

[WV Reefer]

1 hour ago, Tired said:

Would those traps work? 

 

And, just to double-check: these are bobbits, right? I pulled out half a dozen and put 'em in a bowl. 

Definitely eunicid......Bobbit doubtful. 

[William]

23 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Definitely eunicid......Bobbit doubtful. 

Still bad 

[WV Reefer]

5 minutes ago, William said:

Still bad 

For most. 😊

[Tired]

How would one tell if a worm is a bobbit or not? The one in the first picture in particular looks iridescent like bobbits are. I tried looking up pictures online, and half of them are other worms that people are trying to get IDed.

 

And if anyone wants these, I'll ship 'em! They're tiny and I'm not sure they're in good health (the bristleworms they came with aren't doing well at all) but if they don't die in the next few days, they're up for grabs. I know some people like these. They're neat, I just don't want them.

[WV Reefer]

3 minutes ago, Tired said:

How would one tell if a worm is a bobbit or not? The one in the first picture in particular looks iridescent like bobbits are. I tried looking up pictures online, and half of them are other worms that people are trying to get IDed.

 

And if anyone wants these, I'll ship 'em! They're tiny and I'm not sure they're in good health (the bristleworms they came with aren't doing well at all) but if they don't die in the next few days, they're up for grabs. I know some people like these. They're neat, I just don't want them.

A “Bobbit” worm is a specific type of eunicid worm.....Eunice aphroditois......the majority of Eunice worms are not bobbits. Most are harmless scavengers. 

[Tired]

Right, but how do I tell the difference between bobbits and others? If it makes any difference, a decent few of these are staying in the rock, and I'm pretty sure true bobbits don't do that. There's no sand, though, which I'm sure they don't like. I put the ones I caught in a half-gallon bowl with a bit of sand, and some are continuing to just exist, but a couple of them have buried and stuck their heads out. 

 

Is there a list anywhere of pics of known harmless Eunice worms? From what I'm reading, some are fine, but there are also ones that will gladly devour corals. 

 

I have some zoas in there. Is there anything I can do here other than feed very minimally and see if anything eats the zoas? I'd rather not risk them too much, they're just starting to open a bit and they look promising. 

[WV Reefer]

3 minutes ago, Tired said:

Right, but how do I tell the difference between bobbits and others? If it makes any difference, a decent few of these are staying in the rock, and I'm pretty sure true bobbits don't do that. There's no sand, though, which I'm sure they don't like. I put the ones I caught in a half-gallon bowl with a bit of sand, and some are continuing to just exist, but a couple of them have buried and stuck their heads out. 

 

Is there a list anywhere of pics of known harmless Eunice worms? From what I'm reading, some are fine, but there are also ones that will gladly devour corals. 

 

I have some zoas in there. Is there anything I can do here other than feed very minimally and see if anything eats the zoas? I'd rather not risk them too much, they're just starting to open a bit and they look promising. 

You would need a worm expert to know for sure. 🤷🏻‍♀️
 

Mine was in my tank for a long time before I ever noticed it. The only reason that I did was because it started to move my frags around. He liked to eat and decorate with macro algae and eventually destroyed every algae in the tank. 
 

I would just keep an eye out since there is no good way to get them out of the rocks. 

[Tired]

Won't they come out of the rock eventually to eat? I'd think sooner or later, some combination of manual removal, trapping, and maybe an arrow crab (I'm on the fence about an arrow, I don't want the micro brittles in here to get eaten) would get rid of all of them. Especially since they probably aren't breeding adults.

[Opotter]

I had one of these in my tank. Had to pull the rock to remove the little murderer when I saw him retreat to his hole.  He had extensive burrows under my rocks, had to wait until I knew which one he was in.  From what I read trying to remove mine, they never fully leave the rock in most cases (and this is what I saw too).  I think you probably got those out because you were putting new rock in.  Once they settle into your tank, you won’t see them completely leave.  They always keep themselves anchored.  Try and pull them out.. break them.. and now you have two 😉.  They regrow into 2 new 🐛.

 

Here’s mine:

 

Is this similar to what you are seeing in person?

 

@WV Reefer identified mine for me.  She had one similar that she kept in a species only tank for a while.  You can probably search and find the thread.  It was a cool tank for a little murder face.

[Tired]

Yeah, that looks about right, but mine are tiny and hard to get a proper look at. Definitely that sort of antenna crown and the segments and all, and shiny in the right light. 

 

They gotta come out eventually. Surely they'd emerge if I were to, say, not put food in the tank except in traps. 

 

Has it been documented that they can regrow from the back half? Because you always hear that about earthworms, but they can't regrow like that. Planarians can, but I'm fairly sure that's an extremely rare ability. 

 

The rock is sitting in quarantine right now, and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. I suppose I could just keep it separate and use it as an algae growout, then transfer the cool macros into a separate tank. Part of the problem is all the hidden beasties that I want (pods, micro brittles), though. Plus there's some bright red featherdusters that I want to keep, and a chiton, and the colors on these rocks from the non-macros are really nice. 

 

Hm- these don't swim, I don't think. But algae can spread without touching other rocks, right? Wondering if I could suspend rock in this tank, where the worms can't reach, to get algae growing on it. 

[Opotter]

16 minutes ago, Tired said:

it been documented that they can regrow from the back half? Because you always hear that about earthworms, but they can't regrow like that. Planarians can, but I'm fairly sure that's an extremely rare ability. 

Lol!   I didn’t try that experiment myself.  Great question! I read several threads of people trying to remove these things and reporting that.  So only anecdotal, so I guess grain of salt if you are willing to risk it.  But maybe one of the more senior members/ worm experts will chime in!   There was one thread that was really hysterical and quite crazy creative (nothing I would recommend trying), but the dude’s tactics were nuts and totally entertaining.  I will see if I can find it for you just for entertainment purposes.

[Opotter]

For entertainment purposes:

 

https://www.michiganreefers.com/forums/advanced-topics/84173-bobbit-worm-chronicles.html#/topics/84173?page=1

 

This guy had a Bobbit, which is probably not what you had.  I do not endorse his methods by any means, but I do remember laughing my ass off reading it.  

[billygoat]

There are a whole lot of Eunicid worms out there, but I think most of them are not much to worry about. I have one similar to yours in my aquarium and it eats fleshy algae like crazy, but won't touch any corals or other inverts. It's also not interested in calcifying algae like Halimeda spp. If anything yours will probably either come out to snack on your macros and give you a chance to catch or trap them, or just live forever in your rock and be more or less harmless.

 

Anyway I wouldn't be too concerned. I think true bobbit worms are extraordinarily rare as hitchhikers.

[Tired]

I think I might wait and see on these. I'm not finding any large ones, which makes me wonder- do I just have babies, or are these actually full size? And I have those zoas in there that will make acceptable bait. Might set worm traps and take out anything that's not something I know is perfectly fine- partly because I do actually want to keep macros, and there are some neat ones in here. One looks kind of like a big orange snowflake on the rock. 

 

Ah, worms. Too bad I'm not likely to be around for the scifi future where we have versions of laser thermometers that are laser genetic sequencers. Point it at a thing, find out exactly what that thing is. Though maybe by then someone will be growing live rock that doesn't need to come from the ocean. Seems like something that would be good to get in on- just fill a couple of those fish farm pools with farmed rock and start dumping in beneficial beasties. There must be some reasonably practical way to come out with nice live rock covered in algae and whatnot, that only has harmless creatures on it. 

 

Think there's any hope of me training them not to hide when I walk up? The quarantine tank is on the floor, so they can feel me coming over. Maybe I can teach them to associate me with food.

[galofthetao]

Hoping to get a follow up on if you figured out if those were bobbits? I've got some that look just like it