Jump to content
Top Shelf Aquatics

Coral Eating Sand Tunnel


lucabrasi

Recommended Posts

Hi,

 

I wanted to share a problem as it's been driving me nuts and I could not find anything on the internet regarding this specific reefing challenge. So here we go: Since I set up my tank (19 gallon AIO) 8 months ago, Zoas have kept disappearing and there was always a sand tunnel on top/next to the colony.

The sand tunnel:IMG_20211029_131638.thumb.jpg.68b84e813cb98574e6d938a670e37ebb.jpg

 

I googled a lot and found only this thread in a different forum: coral-eating-sand-tunnel.116620 This sounded exactly like my problem but after having seen that the sand tunnels always originate from a perfectly round hole in the rock (appearing in places where there was 100 % no hole in the rock before), I was sure that some kind of rock-boring worm was attacking my corals.

The hole in the rock:IMG_20211222_141302.thumb.jpg.691a8ad77570d16483d911ee6f831b5c.jpg

I am certain that I introduced the worm with a small rock with Zoas to my tank, as the Zoas on this rock were the first to disappear and when I took out this piece it fully broke apart, being full of tunnels.

Since I had never seen the creature itself and it was always hiding in its self-bored tunnels, I concluded that my only chance of destroying it was boiling the rock. After several months of debating whether to actually do it, and too many disappeared Zoas, I finally took out the rock today to boil it and to also do some rescaping. For the rescaping I broke off one of the single rocks of the whole structure that was cemented together from several smaller pieces. I immediately saw the beast and isolated it together with the piece of rock. For good measure I boiled all the rocks of the structure to make sure that any second (or third) worm would be well done before reintroducing the rock back into the tank.

I hope this helps someone who is also confused why corals are disappearing into a sand tunnel!

Out of curiosity: Can anyone ID the beast in the picture that kept me on my toes for months? Could it be a bobbit worm? I cannot see the fangs though and I have never read that they are boring holes or building sand tunnels.

IMG_20220101_215304.thumb.jpg.c9dfdca2647c8626c3c3c9027b3593ba.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment

I fully agree that extra caution is needed with that and I made sure that there is no zoa left on the rock plus had all windows open all the time during the procedure. Thanks for pointing it out!

Link to comment
Nano sapiens

There are many different genera/species of reef associated marine worm.  Most reef keepers would call this a 'Eunicid' worm (which may, or may not, be the correct genus).

 

At any rate, here's an excerpt from Wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunicidae😞

 

 In limestone or coral reefs, Eunicids burrow into hard parchment-like tube corals or remain in crevices of calcareous algae.[18]

 

I've see similar tubes in my reef aquarium for many years made up of what looks like silk that damages coral on contact, but no obvious hole.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...