ID: Spionid worms? How do I get rid of them?

[Reefpharmer]

Hey guys/gals,
I seem to have an issue going on in my reef. These tube worms are growing on my sps, not really irritating them but sure as heck being ugly. If I look really closely, there are 2 tiny antennae (or at least I think there are). They don’t have the feather structure of hyoids and do not seem to sting. The tubes break easily but grow back fairly quickly in the same area. I have a melanurus wrasse in the tank and he doesn’t seem to eat them at all.

Anything I can do to kill/irradicat them? Considering trying interceptor. Please help!

 

[sfin52]

Glue them shut or break them off.

 

[Reefpharmer]

Glue them shut or break them off.

I’m unfortunately not able to glue them as there are quite a few...

 

[trustmeimalawyer]

I am desperately seeking a solution for my spionid worm issue as well. I’m convinced they are irritating my zoas and not allowing them to fully open. I’ve scoured the net and no one has any reliable solutions. Please update this thread if you come up with anything.

 

[MariusK]

I did some experiments with Praziquantel and Boron, but not yet successful...these nasty little worms are very hardy... The only concentration that finally killed them unfortunately did also kill an Acropora specimen...

 

[tabitha123]

I am desperately seeking a solution for my spionid worm issue as well. I’m convinced they are irritating my zoas and not allowing them to fully open. I’ve scoured the net and no one has any reliable solutions. Please update this thread if you come up with anything.

I have having the same issue. Growing all around my zoas and not letting them fully open. It seems they are multiplying quicker now I used to only have a few but now they are everywhere

 

[DothanReefer]

Very interested to hear of any development in this thread as I too have found these buggars in my reef. I have found 3 so far, but I'm sure there are more. One is on base of a chalice, one is on a snail and the other I removed but was on a dying/dead favia that didn't survive shipping.

Anyone found any natural predators for these things? Here is a video of the one on my snail...

YouTube - worm on snail in reeftank

 

[MariusK]

Did some experiments with Milbemycinoxim and Praziquantel (the active ingredients of Milbemax) in a quarantine tank setup... The affected coral this time was a heliopora... roughly 95% of the boring polychaetes died within a few days of treatment... I guess this could work in the long run, if one is willing to do some consecutive treatments... In my case, I stopped the treatment, because I have thousands upon thousands of these critters living within my life rock... And I did not want to do an in-tank-treatment. So eventually they reinfected the Heliopora again... Does not look nice, but they do not kill the coral, so it is moreless an optical issue...

PS.: if you aim at doing an in tank treatment, be aware that this will probably damage/kill all of your polychaetes and crustaceans in the tank...

 

[DothanReefer]

Did some experiments with Milbemycinoxim and Praziquantel (the active ingredients of Milbemax) in a quarantine tank setup... The affected coral this time was a heliopora... roughly 95% of the boring polychaetes died within a few days of treatment... I guess this could work in the long run, if one is willing to do some consecutive treatments... In my case, I stopped the treatment, because I have thousands upon thousands of these critters living within my life rock... And I did not want to do an in-tank-treatment. So eventually they reinfected the Heliopora again... Does not look nice, but they do not kill the coral, so it is moreless an optical issue...

PS.: if you aim at doing an in tank treatment, be aware that this will probably damage/kill all of your polychaetes and crustaceans in the tank...

Crap!! Thanks for the update and reply tho.

I've literally just stared my 1st ever reef tank in March. And now, already, THIS. Geez....

Does anything eat these things? Peppermint shrimp? Copperband? Coralbanded shrimp? Anything??

No idea what I should do...

 

[vetteguy53081]

Small wrasses should show interest

 

[DothanReefer]

Small wrasses should show interest

Any particular kind of wrasse?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Any particular kind of wrasse?

6 line and lunare. Coral banded shrimp also known to eat them. Best recourse is to assure no food reaches then and they'll starve. These worms live in tubes that they construct from mucous and sand. They have two white-clear palps that stick out from the top of the structure, these are used to grab small and large food particles which is what you would glue should you go the glue method

 

[DothanReefer]

6 line and lunare. Coral banded shrimp also known to eat them. Best recourse is to assure no food reaches then and they'll starve. These worms live in tubes that they construct from mucous and sand. They have two white-clear palps that stick out from the top of the structure, these are used to grab small and large food particles which is what you would glue should you go the glue method

Thank you!

 

[ineption]

I am planning on getting rid of this things the most important thing I found is that they secrete acid to melt calcareous mass and borrow there way in to it. So my thinking is if all live rock is removed there isn't much area for them to grow appart from corals, which I can then treat with milbemycin oxime. In the process I will get rid of vermited snails hopefully. Did I say how much I dislike pests and how I regret sticking live rock in my system and not qting all the corals. Oh if only we could turn the time back

 

[ineption]

Did some experiments with Milbemycinoxim and Praziquantel (the active ingredients of Milbemax) in a quarantine tank setup... The affected coral this time was a heliopora... roughly 95% of the boring polychaetes died within a few days of treatment... I guess this could work in the long run, if one is willing to do some consecutive treatments... In my case, I stopped the treatment, because I have thousands upon thousands of these critters living within my life rock... And I did not want to do an in-tank-treatment. So eventually they reinfected the Heliopora again... Does not look nice, but they do not kill the coral, so it is moreless an optical issue...

PS.: if you aim at doing an in tank treatment, be aware that this will probably damage/kill all of your polychaetes and crustaceans in the tank...

Hey MariusK,
Thanks for sharing your findings.
Could you share the dosage you dipped the corals in? Also amount of time you did the dip for and finally where did you manage to get milbemycin oxime and praziquantel as I haven't been able to get anywhere in uk! Thanks in advance

 

[MariusK]

Well, I guess you would have to establish your own dosage protocol since there a a few limitations to my own recipe:
1st Milbemycinoxime appears to have a limited solubility in water... I do not exactly know which percentage of the compound will finally be dissolved in seawater.
2nd Since I did a 3day treatment in an quarantine tank setup, I do not exactly know how stable the dissolved milbemax solution will be over time! It may well be, that after 3 days only a smaller fraction of the active compound will still be available...
Having said this I would recommend following:
Try to predilute the milbemax pill in ethanol since solubility in organic solvents should be quite good. Should you not be able to get milbemax in the UK I could possibly send you some). I bought it from a danish company, if I remember correctly.
Then mix the ethanol-milbemax solution to the final concentration in seawater... If needed create an intermediate concentration (or stock solution) for better handling of the small volumes...
Finally apply a smaller concentration (I started with 24 micrograms Milbemycinoxime per liter) to see how the coral reacts. Since I could not see detrimental effects on my patient, I did increase the concentration up to roughly 100microgramms per liter on day 3 of treatment.
Hope that helps a bit!

 

[MariusK]

I try to upload some pics of the treatment stages including close ups depicting the polychates (in this case in a heliopora host)

:

 

[ineption]

I try to upload some pics of the treatment stages including close ups depicting the polychates (in this case in a heliopora host)

:

MariusK thank you for the awesome detailed reply.
You have shattered my preconceived notions lol I though it was a dip that you performed of several hr and put the heliopora back in to DT turns out it was a 3 day qt tank, which really changes the dynamics of the conversion.
I purchased Fenbendazole to treat my spinoidae after being unable to find Melbacym oxyme. I performed 3 hr dip, mixing 225mg per L of water, like you said this medications don't mix very well in water. I tried blending it in a blender , it was more of a suspension with all the powder in water, cut the long story short the clearly 3hr dip didn't do anything to the worms.
Given what you have mentioned I am tempted to dissolve the Fenbendazole in some ethanol as you suggested and put the coral in qt tank for 3 days see if that doest anything at all. If that doesn't work then I will certainly will be interested in some melbacym oxyme from you.
PS the 3 hr dip I did on some Montis gonis and scolymia didn't affect the corals on bit nor did it affect the worms unfortunately (then again maybe the medication did not dilute!)

 

[ineption]

I got some very very promising news! After unsuccessful treatment with fenbendazole I found out that its not water soluble at all! I mean zero. A little research pointed out that 70% ethanol mixture i.e common hand rub is all that's needed to dissolve the fenbendazole.
So I dissolved 225mg o fenbendazole in 10ml of Ethanol & mixed all that in 1L of DT water I then placed affected coral in plastic tab with screw cap and submerged in my sump & left it there for 6Hr. To my surprise it worked! I could see all the little ugly buggers laying dead at the bottom of the tub and affected coral had a lot of there nests empty see pictures. I have only done it today so can't say yet if I have kept the coral for too long. I will update if it makes it the corals in question are acan, scolly, millipora, candy cane coral and goniopora. I will report back with any casualties. Please see pictures I finally been able to see the enemy. This gives me much hope that possible complete treatment is possible to eradicate this pests once and for all

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Any update here? I have a couple frags in qt with these.