Can some body tell me what he** this is ?!
- Thread starter selkoner
- Start date
- Location
- Queens, NY
Either a bristle worm or a brittle star fish leg.
- Location
- Queens, NY
Looking at it more, I would say it's a bristle worm.
- Location
- central jersey
looks almost like a fireworm
http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=292
http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=292
- Location
- Queens, NY
Well, fireworms are bristle worms.
They eat detritus. I have had them in my tank for years and never seen them eat coral. They are probably the most common hitchhiker we have in our tanks.
As long as your population of them doesn't get out of hand (by overfeeding) they will cause you no issues.
Above all - do NOT touch them. Those bristles will end up in your hands and to most people they hurt like crazy!
No reason to kill it.
- Location
- Staten Island, Brooklyn
I have a lot of those in my tank and fug, totally harmless to livestock and coral, maybe they are still small, I have to trap them if they grow too big.
- Location
- Ronkonkoma, NY
+1
That worm didn't just show up, he has been there all along and as said these type of worms do not eat corals. Cut him a break please?
There are many reasons the torch could have failed to live. Just stating that the bristle worm was most likely not the cause as flow, lighting, parameters, stings from other corals, general health even before you got it, could all have been contributing factors to its demise.
I personally would not include the worm on the list...and your other corals have not suddenly died, so why would he be the cause of this one?
I have alot of torches and coral and this one was big and fine ... All of a sudden one day to another this happen .... This is what I saw on line about them
Fireworms are voracious predators that feed on soft and hard corals, anemones, and small crustaceans. They engulf the last few centimeters of the tip of a branching coral, such as Acropora cervicornis (staghorn coral), in its inflated pharynx and remove the coral tissue right from the skeleton. They typically spend 5-10 minutes at each branch tip, visiting several, and the "skinned" branches are apparent by their white ends.
The effects of predation on certain groups can be substantial. Witman (1988) calculated that tissue predation by this worm on Milleporid Hydrocorals (fire coral) exposed 12.9 cm2 per 1 m2 per day of skeleton to algal colonization.
Although H. carunculata prefers the tissue of Cnidarians, they will readily accept and thrive on alternative foods in captivity. These include: squid, clam, shrimp, krill, mysid shrimp, mussel, etc.
Like many people on here spent alot of $ on corals I just don't want to lose any more the gold torch that died was 2 heads maybe 3 ... It just sucks .... Kathy if I catch him I'll trade u him for a gold torch !! Lol
As you can see he eats corals soft and hard ...
- Location
- Long Island, NY
If you have a rather large fuge put him there...he sounds kinda cool to have...
- Location
- Big City of Dreams
those guys are harmless.. i had foot long ones in my tank and i had plenty of lps and soft corals. They are great scavengers and i considered them part of my clean up crew.
From what I understand there are approximated 6,000 (or some close to it crazy high number) of marine worms..and there are 2 types that eat coral, which likely you do not have in your tank.
99.9% pf the time we find bristleworms in our tanks..that do not eat corals and are a benefit for the tank.
If you haven't off-ed this guy already, and can post another pic for better confirmation, I'd personally appreciate it. For the pic you have up, he looks like a plain old bristle worm..I just hate to see things killed that have no reason to die just because they ended up in our tanks by chance.
There is usually someone who will take them here on the site if you truly don't want him
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