Oenone fulgida, finally a trap that works!

I've been battling one or more of these monsters for the last few weeks with no success until I stumbled on a trap designed by JMcAz7 over on Reef Central.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post a link to there so I won't, but you can find it fairly easy if you want.

I made my own version of his trap and had my first successful catch!! Everyone who's used it has been successful, I thought there was no hope...but now I believe! Here's what I posted over there, hopefully it will help someone else.


SUCCESS!! I made the trap a couple nights ago and caught me a monster!

My worm was very aggressive. I saw him out for a hunt shortly after lights out so I put in the trap. The first attempt I had the bait in front of the noose by mistake, it is a little tricky to set the trap but definitely doable. For the second attempt I put in a bit more bait (three 1/2" cubes), I even poured the water that I thawed the scallops in through the trap and pantyhose for good measure. By this time he was back out on the prowl and I put the end of the pipe about six inches away, then moved it closer, he briefly retreated but not for long. Then when he caught the scent he came a runnin' into the trap! I let him crawl into the pipe for several minutes, and when he stopped moving I pulled.

I kind of freaked and was sure I'd screw something up, but I pulled the line fast and pretty much as hard as I could. He was in and snared, so I lifted the trap up to pull him out of the sand bed to make him as vulnerable as possible. I held it there stretched out for about 30 seconds hoping to tire him out, then started pulling away from the rock he was anchored in and eventually he came free of the rock and pulled the rest of his body into the 'safety' of the trap.

Here's some pics of the beast in question. You can see his tiny head, and that he does actually have many little legs, as compared to a bristle worm whose head is very similar to its body and the protrusions are spikes, not legs. He has quickly decimated the population of my CUC, mainly the snails, since it was introduced 5 weeks ago.










The worm can shrink as small as 4", I'd estimate his normal length to be about 12", and I'd say he can easily stretch past 24".

Here's a pic of a bunch of his victims shells, there are four of these piles around the rock he lived in.



I have no idea if there are more, very good chance, but I'm confident he was the main culprit. Only time will tell...

 

wow, now I know what I'm going to have nightmares tonight about! That is huge!

 

I finally caught it at 2am, woke the wife up to come see (she wasn't that mad ), then went to bed and dreamt about it! It is very creepy, those beady little eyes. The pics don't show it but he released a lot of the slime by the next day.

Took it to my LFS who I've been talking about it with, and he's never seen or heard of them in his 30 years in the hobby.

 

Fulgida worm is what your looking at.

 

I always seem to have some piles of small shells. But I also still have some small hermits.

Maybe I'll keep an eye out for something like this,

Thanks for sharing

 

I eat worms like that for breakfast...