worm in my zoanthids

[Netofficer3710]

theres a worm living in my red zoas

these zoas have been slowly shrinking for the last few weeks

this worm reminds me of a centipede and is most certainly NOT a bristle worm.
he has long antennas

what is it and is it responsible for my shrinking zoas?
how do I catch it?

[dzhuo]

what is it and is it responsible for my shrinking zoas?


Without a picture, it's impossible to tell. Can you get a photo? If your zoas are disappearing (from a healthy colony), it's possible it's a Eunicidae worm which is a omnivore and can be predatory. Does it look similar to this?

http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/polychaete/eunid.jpg

[Netofficer3710]

I've looked al alot of pics and these guys look to be the closest to what I saw out of everything.

how do you catch them?

[dzhuo]

Try use a long skinny glass bottle with a piece of raw shrimp. Sink the bottle half way into the sand and tip it ~30 degree upward. Leave the bottle after lights out (near where you last saw the worm). I have trap all kinds of critters this way.

Have you try dipping the zoa colony?

[Netofficer3710]

Try use a long skinny glass bottle with a piece of raw shrimp. Sink the bottle half way into the sand and tip it ~30 degree upward. Leave the bottle after lights out (near where you last saw the worm). I have trap all kinds of critters this way.

Have you try dipping the zoa colony?

theres an idea!
would coral RX kill the worm?

[Netofficer3710]

well I dipped it.

at a minimum I killed 5 or 6 HUGE amphipods that I found in the bottom of the bucket

[canrio]

I would try the bottle trap.

[GlenG]

Google "Coralife Trap'Em" used it overnight before on bristle worms and by the morning it did the trick.

[2JZGTE]

I have the same problem, nice colony of zoas then starting losing polyps. Turned on the lights to see what was going on at night and found this worm moving around where the polyps were shrinking. I just did a freshwater dip and got the worm out. Hopefully that takes care of the problem.

[Bayinaung]

Without a picture, it's impossible to tell. Can you get a photo? If your zoas are disappearing (from a healthy colony), it's possible it's a Eunicidae worm which is a omnivore and can be predatory. Does it look similar to this?

http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/polychaete/eunid.jpg

OMG... yuckkkkkkkkk I've been looking at stomach-churning worm photos and ID threads and website since running into a tiny but long worm in one of the coral frags I bought yesterday.

I broke the frag in half, and lo and behold there was a skinny orange worm right where it broke.. I picked up a tweezer I was using for fragging polyps and tried to pull it out but it slinked into one frag. I am keeping it in a separate bucket. I think it is like that one in your photo but way skinnier and tiny. from my recollection it seemed more like an earth worm body than the centipede like body this one seems to have...

now should I use the method you've described here or just pull off the 50 or so tiny zoa polyps on that piece of rock and burn that rock?

suggestions please?

[reef4life07]

Any critter would die using coralRx, use a red light at night to try and find the worm. If you're able to find him in coral or a rock pull it out and dip it. Good luck.

[Bayinaung]

yeah I kept that frag in a bucket and today did freshwater dip actually. the thing crawled out and now its down the flush. hope the zoas aren't too damaged.

[semi_butterfly]

the zoas will be fine im sure. there hard to kill off completely and will grow back fairly fast