Dr Ron, coral eating fireworm?

[sabodish]

Dr ron..i found this during a little exploring last night. i have been losing zooanthids and ricordia over the last year and had no idea why. this guy was hiding under a piece of rock i picked up. to me, it matches the description and photo of Hermodice carunculata that i have seen in your articles and some pics i looked up in TRA volume 1...it was bright red with white spines along the side. i didnt know to look for the red dot on its head before it met its demise with the toilet. just wanted to get an opinion from the expert...anyway, on to the pics.
thanks
mike

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a381/sabodish/100_0275.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a381/sabodish/100_0276.jpg

[aaron23]

woooow how did you find that thing :O

[sabodish]

i just got lucky and picked up a piece of xenia rock to frag and he was stuck to the bottom...FREAKED me out!
he was at least 6" when he was in the tank, they tend to shrink after they have been out of the water for a few minutes.

[bertoni]

You might need to post a picture with the animal in the water, so that more of the structure is apparent.

[capncapo]

Unfortunately, it sounds like it has gone to the great commode in the sky. RIP......woosh!

[sabodish]

yep..he met his demise...the wife actually MADE me get rid of it

[rshimek]

Hi,

It might have been a Hermodice, but the images are not good enough for me to be able to tell. I woundn't expect Hermodice to eat zoanthids or Ricordea, however.

In the future, if you want/need an identification of something from your tank, always photograph it under water (in a bowl or something).

[sabodish]

yeah, i tried that at first but they didnt come out too well. thanks for the help dr ron.

[sabodish]

dr ron..i am losing ric's at a rate of one per night? do you have any suggestions on what COULD be eating these if not this worm i found? i havent added any rock to my tank in over 2 years and this is happening all of a sudden. is it possible somethign has run out of its normal food supply and is now turning to my corals?

[rshimek]

Hi,

Hard telling what it could be. Some worms, eunicids, have been caught in the act eating such animals. You might have to either stay up all night or do a series of night dives combined with stealth approaches to see if you can see what the culprit is. If it is a eunicid worm, you might have a real problem as they get large and they are not easy to catch.

Alternatively, it could be some polyp-eating shrimp like a fire shrimp or peppermint. These are also voracious predators of some polyps.

It is really hard to guess in the absence of any real evidence.

[sabodish]

yeah..i tried baiting a glass with some nylons and a piece of shrimp and all i caught were harmless bristle worms. i would think i would see a fire or peppermint shrimp at some point during the day. i have had both before (not in this tank) and they were always out and about. i guess ill continue to bait the glass and see what i can catch. im sure whatever it is, its pretty full by now cause it ate over 100 zoanthids and 5 2" rics this week!

[dad300]

you could try using your video camera on night mode(if you have one on your camera). and then focus it on the area where you have rics and Zoas. wouldn't be something quick but.... you wouldn't need to stay up allnight at first.