oh that thing is huge

[Afishianado]

I have many little bristle worms in my sand and some on the rocks, I think that they are good for the HD sandbed and I have never seen them bother anything. All of the ones I have seen have been about 1 " long. Last night I looked into the tank after the lights had gone out and for the first time ever I saw one of these worms in the rocks that was at least 8" long. That's about as much of him as I could see, and I know that there was more of him. He was close to 1/4" wide. and he bolted when I lit him up with the flashlight. Now I am worried. Hasn't this one reached the size where they are suppossed to be dangerous to the tank. I have all kinds of softies, poylps, and LPS in this tank. Maybe this explains the unexplained demise of my hammer coral that was doing great then started to show up missing more and more tissue every morning. How do I get rid of this guy? do any of the traps I have seen advertised work? he is way to fast and ducks into the smallest holes for me to ever straight up catch this thing.

Chris

[Afishianado]

c'mon somebody knows about these things....

[olgakurt]

Chris,
'Most' of these are rather harmless. You could ask Dr. Ron in his forum and maybe he could help trouble shoot your problem. I would venture that, if any, some other critter is to blame for your problem.

[sculpin]

It's not the size of the worm...

Worm paranoia is a deadly disease, especially to worms. Unless you see the worm actually eating corals (a very uncommon event despite urban lore), leave it alone. It probably just ate more detritus than its brothers and sisters to grow to its present size.

I agree with olgakurt on the hammer's demise. Euphyllia tend to be pretty wimpy and subject to unexplained deaths due to minor variation in water chemistry.

[Steve Richardson]

I'll chirp in here too...

The only thing I worry about with a really big guy like that, is that it will crawl up into a crack and die there... which can be a problem.

Get a picture of it, would love to see it. ;)

[YZ]

I agree about the hammer I got one that looked real good from the LFS and brought it home where it started receding and died. It was strange since I usually bring things home and they color up and do better. I think they need exact perameters or it was getting too much or too little water movement.

[KenH]

I have a similar sized one in one of my tanks with a Hammer, clams, etc. He doesn't seem to bother anything and I don't bother him. I agree with the others, that the Hammers demise was probably something else. There are some very predatory forms, but my understanding are that they are pretty rare.

--- Ken
website: http://www.ReefCorner.com

[grafxguy]

Yeah, my wife says the same thing. eric http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/images/icons/icon10.gif