tube worm

[tomaquar]

Tube worms have started sprouting up all over my tank. They form a hard shell/tube and feed with lines of mucus, not fans. They are about a big around as a tooth pic and maybe a centimeter long. Is there a predator for these? They are becoming a bit of a nuisance.

 

[dakota9]

Fairly new tank?

Their numbers will subside as the tank ages, least that's my experience with them.

 

[tomaquar]

its not quite a year old.

 

[lifestudent]

Are they Caribbean Tube Worms? If so, they have a brown tube, are about 1/2 the thickness of a pencil and the tubes grow to about 2-3" in length.

I also have them and I don't know of a predator, but would also be interested in knowing.

Their population really took off when when I started feeding live rotifers to my system daily.

 

[enderg60]

they are just filter feeders, they dont hurt anything. They do spit out a trail of slime to catch food though.

I have thousands in my tank, they only subsided when the feather dusters took off.

The only bad part about them is when there are hundreds of small ones on the rocks and you poke yourself when you have to move a rock. but they break off easy so just rub the rock sideways before grabbing it.

 

[irahmatulla]

Vermetid snails! They can be quite a pain, and pester any open polyps. If you can break them off and put some super glue over the tube. They will multiply like crazy. I took the one rock that obviously brought them in and stuck it under/behind all of my other rocks. Attempting to starve them. That worked well, but they have cropped up elsewhere now.

 

[tomaquar]

Thanks

 

[swampchamp]

nope