Hi Guys,

Any advice appreciated here.

I have discovered a bobbit worm in my nano marine aquarium (orca 450 setup). No pictures I'm afraid but having done research I am convinced and assured by 2 lfs that from description this is what it is and requires immediate removal (losses over last six months include one royal gramma - literally bitten in half, 4 trochus snails, 2 shrimp) I initally put these losses down to a crab which I have removed but problem persisted and now have discovered the bobbit!.

I have been dead lucky and managed to get him out of the aquarium on first attempt. However he is holed up in a large piece of live rock which i also took out of the aquarium to get the bobbit worm out. The result is that the worm is inside a piece of live rock and both are in my polystyrene box. I want to get the worm out of the rock so I can return the rock to my aquarium.

I cannot easily identify which hole he is hiding in as there are many holes in the rock. His length is at least 10 inches, probably more I have never seen his tail!

Any advice on getting him out of the rock? LFS suggested rinsing rock with fresh water to flush him out - no joy yet.

Thanks for any and all help.

P.S. posted this thread in both emergencies and nano marine forums.

Either boiling RO in a turkey baster , or carbonated FW ( fizzy mineral water ) squirted in will get him out ...

You will need to recycle that piece of live rock though as the bacteria will be killed by the FW .

As Howard wrote there ar no other way to dispose of this worm.
The only way is to force is into a stone you can take out of the tank. May be a close and long look in the night might help you to see it crawl a little out of its protective stone, or at least in such a way you can tke the stone out with your being sure the worm has not been cut into halves or pieces that could make new individuals.
10 inches is still very small, as a guy on my forum took one 130/140 cm long out of his tank.
This is a very bad thing to write, but may be you'd better feed it for a while in order to give it confidence before removal....
To kill it properly : put it in a glass tin with water and put it into the deep freeze...
good luck