Christmass Tree worms (Spirobranchus giganteus)

[Doo]

I picked up a rock this passed week and I have been trying to find good info of keeping these cool worms.

What do they like as far as flow, light and conditions...

All I have found on the net so far is studies on them but nothing related to keeping them in an aquarium.

If anyone knows of a good site or has kept them in the past, please let me know what you know :)

Thank you!

[Keri]

I believe the worms themselves require no special lights, but supplemental feeding with something like DT's would probably be good as they are filter feeders BUT...the "rock" they live in is covered in live coral which does have very high lighting needs, MH or T5 to survive.
Post a pic! They're really neat looking.

http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/product-info.php?product_ID=c-ixmas
That's what J&L has to say about them

[tgoeujon]

i had mine under t5s for about three months and thought they died but then i moved them to my other tank under the compact flourescents and there doing really good even the polyp extension from the porites is really good. surprising since nothing is supposed to work under that lighting lol. they do need good flow though

[Doo]

I have given them both of these conditions so far - I hope they do well...

I have been only seeing them after the lights turn off though - not while the lights are on. I have only had them for 4 days so let's see what happens...

Thank you for the help!

[fencer]

I don't own that coral but I imagine that the feeding requirements are much the same as sun corals. I might further add a well established reef tank is better. I don't think they feed on phytoplankton but zoo plankton or coral snow.

[Zoaelite]

I don't own that coral but I imagine that the feeding requirements are much the same as sun corals. I might further add a well established reef tank is better. I don't think they feed on phytoplankton but zoo plankton or coral snow.

Sun Corals (Tubastrea faulkneri) have a much larger polyp and are avid feeders at night time (requiring larger meaty pieces). The best representation I can give for a Christmas tree worm rock would be to think of some encrusting coral (such as a Montipora Cap.) with symbiotic feather dusters living in it.

[sharuq1]

I'm afraid all I have to go on here is my own experience, but maybe it might help.

We have ours under 4 pc lights (2 10k, 2 actinic), it's on the bottom of the tank and it (the porites that is) gets fed whenever I put little food in the jar (every 2 days to once a week depending on what the tank is looking like--usually brine shrimp eggs and nls pellets--the cleaner wrasse does a good job of making a mess so the eggs go all over the tank and feed the corals). I also just recently bought some reefroids from Elite in Calgary and am trying those out. (Just mix it up in some water and turkey baster it at whatever I want to feed with the skimmer off for a bit.) Polyp extension is great and it fluoresces a very nice green in the actinic light.

I think too much light would most likely burn the coral from what I have seen. (Last one I saw at mid-level in a store under mH had a lot of white on it-but then that could have been from something else too.)

Edit: From reading it seems they like water with more nutrients in it than many might have in their tanks. We tend to have a lot of diatoms on the glass as we have excess nutrients. We don't feed phyto, so I am betting the diatoms are the reason why the worms are alive. Never thought I would find a use for diatoms, but hey makes me feel better about my tank being a bit dirty:painting:

[sharuq1]

http://www.projectdibs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1248

[Doo]

Thank you for the info!

So far mine are 1/3 from the top and I am running T5s. I also have good flow on them. I have yet to see them out during light time & I am thinking that maybe they are getting too much light????

when I look after "lights out" - they are all out doing their thing...

I will have to see how they do over the next 2 days :)