Spaghetti Worm harmful to Long Tentacle?

S

scottdonna

Reefing newb
Hello, this is my first post here, but I am trying to find out if this white worm is causing problems for my long tentacle anemone? I had a carpet anemone that survived in our tank for 2 years. Then one day it pulled its foot out of the substrate, and would not 'plant' itself again. I notice a lot of 'sand tubes' stuck to its foot. The carpet ended up dying, and we have tried 2 long tentacle anemones. We prepare a spot for them, they will 'plant' themselves, and after a few days pull up its foot and float around until they die. Are these worms the cause? The white worm in the sand formed tube is the one I am talking about. These things are everywhere, in the sand and on the rocks.
 

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Welcome to the site! I have never heard of them bothering anemones. It's possible, but I think it's unlikely. What are your water parameters and what kind of lighting do you have? Have you noticed any other animals bothering the anemones?
 
Here's my readings...
Temp - 77 deg
Salinity - 1.024 (topped off) 1.026 (needing top off)
Ph - 8.3
Calcium - 540 (I know high)
Nitrate - .25
Nitrite - 0
Ammonia - 0
Strontium, Magnesium, Iodine and amino acid dosing, no test kit for these
90 Gallon tank, about 150 lbs of live rock, 3" live sand, sump filter w/ additional canister filter for 100 gallon tank, 90 gallon protein skimmer. Two 250 MH (17,500K on one, 20,000K on the other) first on IceCap the other on a generic ballast. Four 48" Acinic T5s. MH runs for 4 hrs per day, Actinics 12 hrs.
I have about 20 Nassarius snails, and 2 sand sifting clams stirring the sand. Along with 2 engineer gobies and one red gobie. Corals are all looking good. Fish having no problems.

The main reason we are looking at these worms is because the anemones always have a lot of these sand tubes stuck to their foot.
 
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One additional item. We have a Rose Bubble Tip anemone in our live rock, and it is doing well, even split, so we have 2 now. The Long Tentacle will not attach itself in the substrate. We have tried several locations, with several different flow rates from medium to almost no flow, and it will not plant itself in the substrate. It looks healthy now, but I am afraid it is going to end up the same as the last two we had if it doesn't attach to something. It has these sand tubes from the worms stuck to its foot.
 
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Hello and welcome to the site...glad to have you aboard. That's kinda odd that it's doing that. What type of sand do you have? And maybe the anemones need a lil more metal halide time than 4 hours?
 
Thanks Lionel,

We have a fine white sand. I couldn't tell you exactly what it is. We may try to run our MHs a little longer. Our LFS told us to cut back because we had crazy algae the snails, urchin or emerald crab couldn't keep up with. The algae did get controllable after we cut back. I'm not sure if that is the same time we started having problems with the anemone. So are these worms good?
 
It sounds like you have some water quality issues that are cause both th algae problems and making the nems "sick". Nems require pristine water quality to do well. The bubble tip did it grow bigger and then split? Nems will also split when the conditions are bad in the hopes that one of the daughters will survive.
 
The Bubble did grow and both are doing great. The Long Tentacle still looks good, but is not planting itself in the substrate. I upped the MH to 6 hours to see if the added light will help the zooxanthellae in the Nems.
 
Going back and looking at your test results I see you are dosing strontium, magnesium and iodine without testing. First off, there are test kits for those trace elements and I wouldn't be surprised at all of you are overdosing on them. Its very easy to do. You should never ever dose something with out testing for it and have a proven need for it. Most even semi-regular water changes will keep those trace elements in check. Iodine is toxic to inverts at elevated levels. The bubble tip likely doing fine because its had a chance to adjust to the higher levels but the far more sensitive carpet nem didn't adjust and the newly added nems aren't adjusting either
 
are your anemones eating? what are u feeding them? and how often? anything hosting them?
When i got my green long tentacle after a week it split and they both continuously move around the tank. After about a month my 2 clowns started hosting them. Today as i fed the fish i watched the clowns take the bigger pieces of shrimp from the Rods Frozen i feed them and feed the anemone. I feed them small piecesof silversides every few days. One still moves but they both have grown and seem to be much happier since the clowns hosted them.
 
We have Percula's who host the nem when the Saddle Back Clowns aren't messing with them. The Saddle Backs also host the nem when they are not with the Rose Bubble Tip they prefer. I'm about ready to get rid of the Saddle Backs, they are way too territorial, and think the whole 90 gallons is theirs. Along with 2 Rose Bubble Tips and the Long Tentacle. We feed them about once a week with Krill.
 
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