Get this monster out of the live rock

[reddhaus]

In a few weeks I will be getting a great looking piece of live rock from my brothers tank. He is taking down his 120 and starting a 40 some gal. cube tank and does not have room for all of his current rock.

He has found that there is some type of creature living inside this piece of rock. I have seen small glimpses of it myself. The only way I can really describe it is kind of like a heavy duty looking worm type of beast. He has a goby that lives in this same rock and there have been no problems between them. He has had a manderin and a cardinal turn up missing.

Needless to say I do not want this nasty looking critter living in my tank. What is the best way to chase him out of the rock before placing the rock in my tank? My thought was to do a nice freshwater dip. Will this work?

Any other suggestions are welcomed.

[Ninong]

My thought was to do a nice freshwater dip. Will this work?

Oh, yes!!! That would definitely do it. Unfortunately your live rock would then be dead rock.

What you could try is a three minute dip in hypersaline water. That may or may not work but at least you would still have live rock after you were done. Just prepare a large enough bucket of saltwater from your tank and increase the salinity by adding more salt mix until you get to about 1.030 specific gravity. Place the rock in question in there but have something on the bottom to support it so that anything that "exits" will drop to the bottom of the bucket. Leave it in there for about three minutes or until you think the monster worm in question has evacuated.

Remove the live rock from the bucket and examine the contents of the bucket to see if there is anything in there that you would rather keep. I have never done this myself but I have heard that it works well in getting mantis shrimp and nasty crabs to evacuate their live rock hideouts. It might work on your monster worm. If you get him out, see if you can post a picture so we can all play What Am I?

[miareefer]

Id say what you are expeirencing is some sort off rock based sand sucking cucumber i have one in my tank and he only comes out at night and is extremelly light sensitive so check out the entrance to the rock at night for a brief glimpse if your lucky.
In my limited expeirence they are totally harmless and would actually be benieficial for the tank

[Northman_with_reef]

Hello!

Sounds like you might have a mantis.
Do you hear loud clicks at night?

I had a Mantis once...
I just found the rock he was living in and dipped it in freshwater for about 5sec and he popped right out.
The LR did'nt die.

-Thomas

[Minh Nguyen]

I (We) use live rock for the live in it. IME, there are lots of worms in the rock. Most of them are scavengers and unlikely to kill fish. I would judge him inocent until proven guilty. Leave him be, he will be good for your tank.
There are plenty of reasons for Mandarin and Cardinal to go missing. How healthy they are prior to going missing is of primary important
Minh

[Minh Nguyen]

Hello!

Sounds like you might have a mantis.
.......
-Thomas

Thomas, there is just nothing posted by reddhaus suggested that he has a Mantis. It was a "heavy duty looking worm type of beast." Mantis is hardly a worm.
Minh

[Poseidon]

WEll you could always take the Thermonuclear approach....

SMASH the rock pick out the beast, the have lots and lots of smaller rocks!!!

I know that sounds harsh, but other then Ninongs suggestion of super salty water I can't think of anything else...

Let me know if you want to borrow a sledge hammer

[miareefer]

Heres a pic off my 6 inch monster he sticks his head out off his hole only at night and gets down to lick the sandbed all night long.

[zhenya]

I have to agree with Minh and unless you see this worm doing something bad,I'd leave it alone. On a different note,could you describe this "monster" a bit more?
Behavior and perhaps more details of what it looks like? Like what color it is,does it have bristles etc.,etc. It could be a sipunculan type worm(peanut worm) which grows quite large and can be scary looking if you don't know what it is.They usuallu live inside or under rocks and are harmless or beneficial worms.
I have one and when I saw it first time at night I literally freaked

[Northman_with_reef]

Thomas, there is just nothing posted by reddhaus suggested that he has a Mantis. It was a "heavy duty looking worm type of beast." Mantis is hardly a worm.
Minh

You are right, it's hardly a worm.
But I would definetly classify a mantis as a type of "Beast" and it is absolutly "heavy duty"

Anyway, it was just a suggestion, I'm not saying that he has a mantis for sure I'm just saying he might....

[Poseidon]

Nobody likes my Smash Idea?

Just kidding... I haven't seen a reply from Redhaus yet, I guess we wait.

[Tanger]

It's a Cucumber, as sand shifter and detris eater. It's not dangerous at all and it helps the environment.

It hides all day and eats and crushs sand all night, $10 at the local store...

[reddhaus]

My brother found this thread and seems to think that this is the same worm that lives in the rock he is giving me.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=152249

Since the rock is in his tank i have not been able to watch it all that much. A couple of times i saw it in the shadows under the rock but not good enough to really tell anything. It does have feelers or tentical looking things on its head.

Even though i don't know what it is i still feel i would be better off just removing it. I would rather be safe than sorry ya know. The worm in the link above is a soft coral eater and i just can't have that.

I will post pics when i do finally get the rock and remove the worm.

[zhenya]

Scott,

I still remember that thread on RC and we had something similar here as well becouse Steve had posted about his experience here also.
If you are sure that you have this type of worm(which is a Eunicid btw) then I would definately look for the ways to get rid of it,humanely as possibile....then again,Mikes idea of using sledge hammer sounds like a good idea at that point

[Minh Nguyen]

I love those huge worms in my tank. They generate the most eggs and baby worms. I have several that are 3 feet long and don't have any problem with them.

[zhenya]

I love those huge worms in my tank. They generate the most eggs and baby worms. I have several that are 3 feet long and don't have any problem with them.

Minh,

What species are your worms?Sounds like you got some BIG worms in your tank.

[Minh Nguyen]

Minh,

What species are your worms?Sounds like you got some BIG worms in your tank.

I am not sure what species. I got three > 2 feet. One was pure black. All three died when my tank crashed. I tried to same them but not able to.
Minh

[Chris Lakies]

Well Scott and I got the worm out Saturday. Man these things are nasty looking. He was about 2-3 feet long, and exactly the same thing Steve had. I believe he was responsable for taking little bites out of my clams mantles. I will have him post some pics as soon as he fixes his PC.

[zhenya]

Chris,

Thanks for an update.So you think it is a Eunicid type worm? Did it have those nasty looking tentacles on his head...? There was a thread recently in Dr.Ron's forum describing a 24" bristleworm Hermodice carunculata. Those are gorgeous looking and I would take it so it can munch on some mushrooms but I would never consider house a Eunicid worm in my tank.
I hope Scott can post some pics of that monster.

[Poseidon]

Yup I wanna see those Pix too....


So what process did you use to get the monster out?