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KathyC

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Barnum Island
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While feeding my sun corals a short time ago I noticed that the bristleworms all seemed more active than they usually do at feeding time. Next thing I knew I saw a poof of what looked like smoke swirl out from behind a zoa colony. I then noticed that the bristleworms would almost stand up off the rock or wherever they were and they'd squirt out a dense stream of what I know now to be ..eggs and pink sperm.
I grabbed the camera and shot the pics below.
It was really something to witness and in no time at all the water looked like skim milk.
This event went on for about 10 minutes and afterwards the bristleworms started crawling over the rocks and corals and a number of them climbed up onto upright corals such as my Devils Hand and and Xenias. They first circled the coral and would work their way to the top and then stand up off the coral with about 1 inch of their body stretching into the water column. This part of the event lasted about 5 minutes.

They've all since gone back into the rock work now and the only bristle worms I see now are the smaller variety.
It took the tank near an hour to clear.
I understand the lunar cycle may have something to do with the timing of this and I'd done a water change last night which also seems to be a factor in the timing.

Enjoy the pics!

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DEEPWATER

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Cool shot Kathy .....


Im wondering what you ppl do to your tanks at nite :rolleyes:
 
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Pedro

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A case of in the right place at the right time! Cool! But now you might have a bristleworm explosion!
 

KathyC

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Thanks for the comments folks!
But now you might have a bristleworm explosion!
I had a huge worm population from the time I got the rocks..can't say I'm looking forward to more.. :eek: .

Do you have a CBS shrmp?
Mine does an incredible job of eating those bristle worms.
Keeps the population in check
I'd have to get a CBS that weighs about 4 pounds to take care of all these worms I have now, never mind a bunch of new ones!
Seriously, according to the articles 'they' say bristleworm populations are self limiting based upon the availability of a food source..and since I control part of that food souce I will be feeding less...

In those pics, is that the eggs or the sperm?
It's both eggs & pink sperm!

All I know is my skimmer was going beserk until this morning...what a mess!
 

KathyC

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Barnum Island
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Me neither, the CBS in my cube shredded the 2 Peppermint shrimp I put in that tank...and there is no way I'm allowing anything to harm my Fire shrimp!:eek1:
 

LeslieS

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Manhattan
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Great pics!

I know what you mean about the full moon. 3 mushrooms/ricordias that gave no indication that they were even close to splitting - have split or are almost split since Thursday!!
 

KathyC

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Thanks guys & gals. It was interesting to watch. The following night (at just about the same time, again while feeding the tank) it started again. That night it was only about 10 or 12 worms...might have been the ones who missed the party the night before...

2 pics below...the first one is from the second night. The bristle worm who released the 'cloud' to the left is in the bottom center of the pic.

The 2nd pic is from the first night of the spawing and the worm on the Devils Hang frag stayed there for about 5 minutes slowly twirling and stretching.
 

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I'v had the samething happen to me a few months ago but the tank was so cloudy all the pics I took looked like a snow storm. I shut my canister filter off tonight and fed the tank, when I came back the tank was super cloudy so I shut the canister filter back on. just did a water change late sunday.
 

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