Nana Chloropsis
Well-known member
I was doing a just-lights-out feeding of my LPS, doting on my acan lords as they haven't been looking so hot lately, when I spotted an enormous whiskery head pop out of a hole in the rock. I kept looking, and what appeared was out of some horror film. Seriously hideous. NOT a bristle worm. I laid in wait with large tweezer ready, but this worm was amazingly fast. Then, just as my fingers were starting to wrinkle up nicely, it came out of another hole. It rose up and hovered over my rainbow acan vertically and just took HUGE BITES out of it. Of course, I am screaming by this point, and hubby runs into the room. He saw it munch away, so this was not a bad dream, it really happened.
I grabbed a bucket and got all the coral off of that rock with a screwdriver, threw that rock into the bucket in under two minutes. Poured hot water over it and let it sit overnight, worst sleep I have had in years.
This morning the bucketwater was full of dead pods, tiny bstars and bworms but NO acan-eater. We got out a hammer and chisel and turned the rock apart until we found this. It appears to be a younger one of these Barry the giant sea worm discovered by aquarium staff after mysterious attacks on coral reef | Mail Online It had a more reddish head than "barry" but still the same face, same white stripe on the neck.
I think I have had this in my tank for at least a month, I wonder where it hitchhiked in from? Oh, the HORRORS!