it's a snail killer!

[FlameHawk]

look at what I caught. This worm been killing the snails I put in my 80gal for very long time, don't know if there are any more though(but I don't think it mutiplied...so far anyway..will have to wait and see). Been try to catch this guy for long time, and gave up long time ago. I am really lucky that I caught this worm.

This little guy only shows up under dim or no light. Very shy, sensitive to vibrations, use its slime to build a tunnel to travel in (when travel on sand the sand cover outside of the tunnel ), very sneaky/fast...this guy can strech out pretty long

It also eats limpids(spelling?). That's how I know its existence, because by chance I saw him/her stick it's "beak"/mouth between spaces of limpid's shell and glass... eat the inside clean, than the limpid's shell just falls off the glass.

When ever I saw a lot slime in one area and there is a snail shell there. I know it is this worm's handy work. Probably use the slime to keep others from eating its food, keep itself safe, and perhapes trap it's prey...because the slime probably too slipery for it's prey if try to get away...sufficate its prey?... Not sure if the slim have any other properties like numbing the prey or maybe it has some type of venom it can inject its prey that can paralyze it's prey....Unless by luck I discover the snail it is hunting early enough (suspecious slimes...), other wise almost always too late.

I am sure it eat other things too, I just don't know what. possibly eats any left overs, but when there is/are snails in my tank it seems to activly hunt them down. already kill few snails in the past few weeks.

these pictures took me a while to get it like this...but still not as clear and sharp as I hope I am able to shoot...so can show more detail... It is a pretty amazing creature...kind beautiful in its own way...but it eats snails...so got to go

1st and 2nd pictures, those clear things are its slimes. The rubber band is those small ones LFS uses, toothpick and the recycle symbol can kind give you some idea the length/size of this thing.

[FlameHawk]

picture of worm 1

[FlameHawk]

picture of worm 2

[FlameHawk]

picture of worm 3

[FlameHawk]

picture of worm 4

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picture of worm 5

[FlameHawk]

here is the response from Leslie on ReefCentral.





Yup, worm woman, that's me. I also love other inverts as well.

Ooo, very nice pics! Far better than most I see on reef forums. Not your standard bristle worm is right. Those are amphinomid polychaetes while this one is in the family Oenonidae. It's Oenone fulgida and it's well known as a snail killer. If there are no snails in the tank it will eat detritus, scavenge on sick-dying-dead animals, left over fish food, and even algae so removing all snails from your tank won't starve it to death.

Your observations on the slime are also very good. I've never seen any study on exactly how the slime works to kill snails. People say it suffocates the snails but like you I wonder if there's a poison in it or if it's just nasty & keeps other animals away from the worm's dinner. New thought - rather than being nasty the slime could mask the smell of the snail's flesh so other predators aren't attracted.

How did it eat the limpet? All at once or bite by bite? They get larger and there are reports of them attacking Tridacna. Much as I love worms I understand if you feel the need to get rid of it.

[NaCLH2O]

:p Ewww... kinda cool but really, really freaky. :eek:

((This reminds me of that book, How to Eat fried worms.)) I guess i should know better than to eat luch and try read things titled: Snail Killer :confused:

That sucker is huge!! Do all worms like this eat Snails?? I lost a Turbo from my Refugium and it had smaller brighter red and black worms. Someone told me to try an Arrow Crab to make it more habitable.

Neat Pix. :cool:

[FlameHawk]

pretty neat little thing, but killed a lot of my snails over the last few years. Too bad I don't have better camera to take more detailed and sharper pictures.