Blackish eunicids with white collars on KP Aquatics live rock: scavengers or opportunists?

[Tired]

I don't have any good photos, but I'm pretty sure people will know what I'm talking about, if they have personal experience with these. I got some rock from KP Aquatics, and it has eunicids on it that are black at first glance, dark pink/brown if you shine a light on them. They have white collars behind their heads. I've seen pictures of them pretty large, or at least something that looks like them. 

 

Does anyone have any of these guys in their tanks? I'm curious if they're actually going to cause any problems, or if they're just going to get big and look creepy-cool. I'd like a big harmless eunicid or two, but obviously I don't want them if they're going to eat my corals.

(Though, a single one that only eats around its burrow could be negotiable. I can just not put corals there.)

[mcarroll]

I thought they were fish/invert eaters, not coral eaters?  As long as the fish are too big, no real worries.   But as you know they get bigger.....so keep them in mind when buying fish or other critters that can be hunted in the night. 😉 

 

Check out https://www.wetwebmedia.com/WormID19.htm

[WV Reefer]

5 hours ago, Tired said:

I don't have any good photos, but I'm pretty sure people will know what I'm talking about, if they have personal experience with these. I got some rock from KP Aquatics, and it has eunicids on it that are black at first glance, dark pink/brown if you shine a light on them. They have white collars behind their heads. I've seen pictures of them pretty large, or at least something that looks like them. 

 

Does anyone have any of these guys in their tanks? I'm curious if they're actually going to cause any problems, or if they're just going to get big and look creepy-cool. I'd like a big harmless eunicid or two, but obviously I don't want them if they're going to eat my corals.

(Though, a single one that only eats around its burrow could be negotiable. I can just not put corals there.)

I have had two. The first one loved macro and anything else I would feed it. The one I have now eats exclusively macro and is getting quite large. 

[mcarroll]

1 hour ago, WV Reefer said:

I have had two. The first one loved macro and anything else I would feed it. The one I have now eats exclusively macro and is getting quite large. 

Pics?  Too cool! 🙂 

[WV Reefer]

12 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

Pics?  Too cool! 🙂 

The first one:

 

 

 

the current one:

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CXm3ki4gpGJ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[mcarroll]

Thread pics aren't loading for some reason!  Gr!

 

Instagram vid loaded tho.  They are SO creepy-cool!

[Tired]

From what I know of eunicids, most of them are either scavengers and herbivores, or scavengers/herbivores with a side of grazing on whatever sessile organisms are nearby. The fish-eating is mostly bobbits, which these aren't. A good thing; I have some tiny blennies, and these will get pretty big. My LFS has a picture somewhere of a chunky one, bigger in length and width than a pencil, that someone brought in to show off and find a breeder box for.

 

Oh, cool! Have you ever put corals anywhere near either of them, to see if they'll chew it under normal circumstances? I'm sure they'd eat corals when starving, but so will a lot of things.

 

I definitely want to keep a few of these, though I may not wind up with many; I've just added another worm to the suspicious-worm bin. A ragworm. Apparently a lot of ragworms eat other worms, so we'll see how that works out.

 

There are so many worms on this rock. The eunicids, spaghetti worms, some little reddish-pink ones I'm not sure of, a five-inch ragworm, and what I think is some sort of ribbon worm by the looks of it. Bright pinky red with a white stripe. Also a type of small, sponge-eating nudibranch, several brittle stars that might be two different species, two crabs, three pistol shrimp, and that's not even getting into the bryozoans and other encrusting life. There's so much stuff! Can't wait to see what all pops out. 

(Literally pops, in the case of the pistol shrimp. I'm gonna have to get used to periodic snapping noises from the general area of my aquarium again.)

[WV Reefer]

3 hours ago, Tired said:

From what I know of eunicids, most of them are either scavengers and herbivores, or scavengers/herbivores with a side of grazing on whatever sessile organisms are nearby. The fish-eating is mostly bobbits, which these aren't. A good thing; I have some tiny blennies, and these will get pretty big. My LFS has a picture somewhere of a chunky one, bigger in length and width than a pencil, that someone brought in to show off and find a breeder box for.

 

Oh, cool! Have you ever put corals anywhere near either of them, to see if they'll chew it under normal circumstances? I'm sure they'd eat corals when starving, but so will a lot of things.

 

I definitely want to keep a few of these, though I may not wind up with many; I've just added another worm to the suspicious-worm bin. A ragworm. Apparently a lot of ragworms eat other worms, so we'll see how that works out.

 

There are so many worms on this rock. The eunicids, spaghetti worms, some little reddish-pink ones I'm not sure of, a five-inch ragworm, and what I think is some sort of ribbon worm by the looks of it. Bright pinky red with a white stripe. Also a type of small, sponge-eating nudibranch, several brittle stars that might be two different species, two crabs, three pistol shrimp, and that's not even getting into the bryozoans and other encrusting life. There's so much stuff! Can't wait to see what all pops out. 

(Literally pops, in the case of the pistol shrimp. I'm gonna have to get used to periodic snapping noises from the general area of my aquarium again.)

The first one I had used the corals/frags to decorate his house but never ate them. The new guy is only around a few corals and has never messed with them. 

[WV Reefer]

Here’s a few from Instagram since all my pics are missing from that thread:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTkT3EbFYAa/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BS9pVfCFlGx/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuKlvGkn__D/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSkBVlllFUe/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[Tired]

Sweet, good to know. Yours definitely looks like the same species, though mine are all tiny- the biggest I've got are a couple of very thin ones at about 3" long, and most are an inch at most. 

[mcarroll]

17 hours ago, Tired said:

ragworm

 

From wikipedia......Ack!!!

Quote

Human use[edit]

 

Tylorrhynchus heterochaetus are considered a delicacy in Vietnam.

Ragworms such as Hediste diversicolor are commonly used as bait in sea angling.^[4] They are a popular bait for all types of wrasse and pollock. They are also used as fish feed in aquaculture.^[5]

 

Ragworms, such as Tylorrhynchus heterochaetus, are considered a delicacy in Vietnam where they are used in the dish chả rươi.^[6]

 

In rice-growing areas of China, these worms are called 禾虫 (Mandarin: hé chóng, Cantonese: woh4 chuhng4). They are harvested from the rice fields and are often cooked with eggs.

Yum!   🤢