Is this the Bad Fireworm?

So its a smart worm eh? Tweezers then lol

 

Youve had the fireworm for 5 years and it hasnt eaten your corals?? Makes me wodner why we sometimes jump to kills things because we believe they are bad, the more I read the more I like the philosophy of not killing anything unless you see it on your corals doing damage.

 

As you can see in the image he used to live in the same burrow as the Goby and the pistol shrimp you can just to the right of the goby.

Originally when he was small I took it out and did not have the heart to kill it, put it back in and it's been there ever since.

The vast majority of Fire Worms/Bristle worms I have never had issue with and they eat all the left overs, no need for hermits.

 

I'm with Cheryl on this one; never had any harm from these guys.

To that point:

I've always been under the impression it's Hermodice carunculata that's the coral eater, and Eurythoe complanata are simply beneficial scavengers. (just don't touch them )

 

While I've never had one the size of corailline's snake, I've had a couple small ones and they never caused any harm. Not saying your snake will though corailline. Lol

 

Not too sure about that one. This little guy was going nom nom nom on the base of the kenya tree that had wrapped around into the shell.

Maybe he just didn't have anything else to eat. Who knows.

 

Yeah, I have to say also I'm with Cheryl on this one. I have the same type of worm in my tank and have always associated them with bristle worms. They've never harmed corals in my tank what so ever. In fact, in a year I've only lost one coral when my skimmer pump fried out on me and shocked my chalice. I have a 6 inch kenya as well. Never been touched.

 

Its hard to say, many times we think things are munching on our corals when really they are eating built up algae on the coral, mucous secreted from the coral, dead tissue from an unhealthy/dying coral, or accumulated detritus that is stuck on/around the coral. I have a million bristleworms in my tank most of them the common tannish/purplish color but a few of them are pinkish like that and I have never even seen them on a coral. The only thing I did witness was a large one playing tug of war with a hermit crab, a snail, and an acan over a piece of mysis, nobody won they all got a piece of it.

 

I used to have tons of them