Help! Tube Worm Lost His Head?

[F1shyP1e]

We have 3 tube worms in our tank, well two and a half really! We bought 2 initially and hubby decided worm 1 didn't like his location so tried to pick him up and and virtually pulled the poor thing apart! Luckily though the remaining worm bit slid under a bit of rock and now has grown a new head and has settled in nicely. It goes unsaid now that hubby does NOT try to relocate the poor tube worms!

Anyway, because we'd only just bought the 2 tube worms, he went back to the shop and blagged another free one saying that the first one had died (he just omitted to tell them how!). All 3 worms have been in our tank about a month or so now but now worm 2 started shedding his head yesterday (the feather duster bit?) and today its all fallen off. He looks like he's trying to get out of his tube and I'm wondering if he's going to relocate somewhere?

I've ordered hubby not to go in there interfering again and just to leave him to it. Do they do this, is it normal? Will he grow another head again like worm 1 did?

Thanks

 

[xxBarneyxx]

The can drop part of their crown and grow it back but generally (from what I have read not from personal experience) they will often not survive for long after they do this.

Couple of reasons they could do this would be water quality (make sure you run tests to make sure everything is ok) and lack of food (which is apprently fairly common).

If you dont already feed them I would recommend getting some phytoplakton or similar (I use something called marine snow) and target feed them every so often (use a syringe or something to gently let the food blow over the outside of their crowns).

It could also be in an area with too much flow.

 

[kj23502]

It can be hard to successfully keep them anyhow. I would suggest to not buy any more. Certainly do full research before buying something new. That way you'll know how they work/what they do(or could do) and approximately what causes what. You also would've know how hard they can be to keep alive.

 

[Lynden]

Shedding the crown can mean lots of things. Generally it indicates some sort of stress, though they often lose their crowns when spawning, so that the larvae are not eaten.

The worms can easily regrow a new crown (they almost always survive one or two sheds), but as the others have alluded to they can be difficult to feed. Use tiny bits of phyto and zoo plankton, sprayed gently with a pipette into the back of the crown, not the front. Living copepods (such as those that naturally occur in great numbers in some tanks) may sustain the worms as well.

If you like that sort of animal, you could look into tube "anemones". They are a bit trickier to place since they need a deep-ish sand bed and do not adapt to rocks, but they are very colourful and beautiful. They are also easier to feed, accepting numerous sizes of zooplankton. Contrary to popular reef-lore they are not aggressive nor do they have powerful stings, but very small ornamental animals can be eaten by them as a plankton would be.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

A question though. Are they really as hard to keep as some people make out? I have had mine for over a year and though I do feed it I dont always feed it on a regular basis. It has also survived about a month of neglict when I moved and left my tank in the care of someone else.

If I was going from personal experince (based on this one specimen) I woukld have said they where extremely hardy but whenever I read about them it always mentions that they are very difficult to keep.

(sorry slightly off topic I know).

 

[Lynden]

Most older literature seems to claim they are hardy. Most internet references say they are not. They can get by for a long time with little or no food, and in tanks with lots of microfauna they may well be sustained.