After 2 years, a man decided to move his fish tank and discovered something incredible living inside. While he was at work breaking down his tank he noticed a whole coral colony went missing after a single night. Curious to find the culprit he stayed up to look for it.
“I first saw it after I spent a few nights sat up…for about 3 hours per night looking for the critter who was eating my corals,” wrote the videographer. What was it? It was a giant bristle /eunice worm!
The polychaetes often piggyback into saltwater tanks on corals where they then grow, often undetected by the aquarist. The worm in this man’s tank measured almost 4 feet (1.2m) long!
The bristle worm is pretty elusive and an expert in disguise. “Even when I knew it was there, I only ever saw it 3 times within the space of a year,” the man wrote. “It hides in the rocks, and only comes out at night, impossible to catch without taking everything out the tank.”
Bristle worms tend to scavenge and clean debris if they live in a tank, but they’ll eat coral if they are really hungry. The sea creatures date back to prehistoric times. Wow, imagine finding one in your tank!
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