Worm ID please!

[Stephane Cote]

Oh dear!!!
Thanks for this... what will I do if it is actually in the sand not the rock!!?

I noticed my yellow tang was getting his fins

That was a concern of mine as well, so i came up with a trick. unfortunately it's VERY aggressive technique and should be used ONLY if you cannot locate the worm inside a rock. I honestly think it will be in a rock because the sand isnt deep enough like in the wild. This will cause your tank to mini-cycle.

if you know "around" where it is.. remove rocks on either side of the site. Then box it with glass panels or acrylic plastic sheets. (like separate the tank).Make sure the sheets go ALL the way down to the bottom of your tank. (so it cant escape under it). what i did is move the sand all the way out to the glass then put the sheet on top and put the sand back to hold the sheet. I used rocks to help keep the sheet of glass up.

Once i had both sides blocked off, i started to remove rocks and start the suspension technique (i had 3 large rocks, so 3 buckets) once the rocks were out, i started shifting the sand with my fish net (DON'T do it with your hands!! i stirred ALL the sand between those to sheets of glass (looking for it) and caused a mess. but, did not find the worm. during the stir up i did find those tunnels that globed up. so i knew it was travelling in the sand.

the next day i found the work in a bucket. it was the biggest rock i had (of course) and the one sitting on the sand.

like i said.. it's a PAIN to remove (i had to strip my tank almost all the way) , but spend the time to do it properly. else you will be chasing a ghost. because it will split itself (if caught) to survive the attack and each of those pieces will grow a new worm.

now, i know what to look for and was able to spot the 'baby' pretty rapidly. that enabled me to locate the small rock and pull it out and do the suspension treatment. sure enough the 2nd worm dropped in a bucket. good thing because i didn't have to re-strip my tank.

 

[bazmackem]

I noticed my yellow tang was getting his fins

That was a concern of mine as well, so i came up with a trick. unfortunately it's VERY aggressive technique and should be used ONLY if you cannot locate the worm inside a rock. I honestly think it will be in a rock because the sand isnt deep enough like in the wild. This will cause your tank to mini-cycle.

if you know "around" where it is.. remove rocks on either side of the site. Then box it with glass panels or acrylic plastic sheets. (like separate the tank).Make sure the sheets go ALL the way down to the bottom of your tank. (so it cant escape under it). what i did is move the sand all the way out to the glass then put the sheet on top and put the sand back to hold the sheet. I used rocks to help keep the sheet of glass up.

Once i had both sides blocked off, i started to remove rocks and start the suspension technique (i had 3 large rocks, so 3 buckets) once the rocks were out, i started shifting the sand with my fish net (DON'T do it with your hands!! i stirred ALL the sand between those to sheets of glass (looking for it) and caused a mess. but, did not find the worm. during the stir up i did find those tunnels that globed up. so i knew it was travelling in the sand.

the next day i found the work in a bucket. it was the biggest rock i had (of course) and the one sitting on the sand.

like i said.. it's a PAIN to remove (i had to strip my tank almost all the way) , but spend the time to do it properly. else you will be chasing a ghost. because it will split itself (if caught) to survive the attack and each of those pieces will grow a new worm.

now, i know what to look for and was able to spot the 'baby' pretty rapidly. that enabled me to locate the small rock and pull it out and do the suspension treatment. sure enough the 2nd worm dropped in a bucket. good thing because i didn't have to re-strip my tank.

Wow!! Not looking forward to this!!!!!!

This is the rock I suspect... This is the underside:
LFS have said they will take the rock and try the water in a bucket trick and then put it with their other rocks for curing then I can put back in the tank! Not going up for a week or so so hope it does no damage in the mean time!

 

[Stephane Cote]

yeah those pictures do show the tunnels. for the next few days (YOU HAVE TO BE SURE) use a red flash light at night and try to locate it.. and spot where it retreats too. if needed, more things around slightly to get a good vision of where it's poking out of. once you can say 100% thats where its at, then take out the rock.

but mindful that it could be several inches at this point. from your pictures, id guess 10inches+. That means that even though it pokes its head out from one rock, it maybe snaking through it only and it's home in another rock.. remember it tries to cover itself as much as possible so it may tunnel through a couple rocks. don't worry though if you move that rock slightly and you notice peak out of the same rock a few days later.. the you know thats where its at. when they get spooked or their home is moved alot, they will go in hiding (sometimes you may not see it for days/weeks) and move around to another spot. so be careful of that

I agree.. NOT fun, but lucky for you, i have good experience with this. especially that i removed another one a few days ago without a hitch