# AQUARIOFILIA MARINHA > Discussão de Artigos >  Anelideos - Vermes de Fogo - Por Ronald L. Shimek

## Pedro Nuno Ferreira

*Anelideos - Vermes de Fogo* *Por: Ronald L. Shimek* *Traduzido Por: Pedro Nuno Ferreira  www.reefforum.net* *
*
*Artigo Original Por Ronald L. Shimek  Annelids  Fireworms*


 :Olá:  Ron Shimek é um cientista especialista em *invertebrados* e entre muitos *invertebrados* que estudou ao longo da sua prolífica carreira científica, os vermes de cerdas, mais conhecidos como vermes de fogo, foram/são assuntos de estudo aprofundado. 
Justamente por isso o artigo que hoje trazemos, reveste-se de particular importância porque esclarece bem sobre este enigmáticos animais, detestados e perseguidos por uns, apreciados por outros pelo seu valor como deteritivoros, algo temidos pelas suas cerdas potencialmente venenosas ou pelo menos irritantes. 
Pela leitura deste artigo escrito por um cientista de renome ficamos a saber que se de facto as cerdas podem sem venenosas ou perigosas, nem todas as espécies destes animais comem corais, ou atacam outros animais. De facto e como descrito em vários artigos, literatura cientifica especializada, existe um verme de fogo, Hermodice carunculata, que de facto se sabe ser um predador de gorgónias, de que se alimenta como descrito no artigo, mas a realidade é frequentemente outra e assim fruto de fraco esclarecimento, confusão na identificação das espécies, todos os vermes de fogo são classificados ou podem ser, como potenciais predadores de corais, etc...ora este excelente artigo esclarece que não é bem assim como poderão ficar a saber pela leitura do mesmo.

Atenciosamente :SbOk3: 
Pedro Nuno

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## Nuno Silva

Hello Ronald,

I just want to tell you about an experience that happened in my reef a few weeks ago concerning fireworms.

In you article you say that most of the times fireworms reproduce assexually. Well, one day i was snapping my valonias inside my tank (something that i think is usefull to control the population) and i noticed a cloud of cream stuff. I imediately associate it to my snails and so i continued to snap the valonias. But then again, big clouds were beeing released and i start to think that it could not be my snails because the clouds were too big. I stop for a moment and stare at the aquarium. What i saw next really freak me out: the fireworms were releasing the clouds, all over my tank. At least 5/6 big ones were releasing clouds in different parts of the tank at the same time. We were in the middle of the light period (HQI).

I suspect that it may have something to do with the valonias but i never did it again so i can not be shure. I wonder if you have some kind of experience with sexual reproduction in this animals. What do you think?Any ideia abut the stimulus for the event?

The result was a cloudly tank for a few minutes and now i see sometimes very little fireworms when i lift my corals but nothing to worry about...i guess. 

Best Regards,
Nuno Silva

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## Nuno Silva

Olá a todos,

Relatei ao Ronald um evento que já relatei aqui no fórum algures num tópico sobre a reprodução sexuada de fireworms no meu aquário.

Aconteceu quando estava a rebentar valonia. As fireworms começaram a libertar grandes nuvens de esperma e ovos, todas ao mesmo tempo, em diferentes partes do aquário. O mais estranho é que as luzes estavam acessas e tudo. Acho que estará relacionado com o rebentar das valónias mas ainda não tive oportunidade de rebentar mais valonias novamente (depois de as rebentar elas demoram muito a voltar a crescer). 

Perguntei ao Ronal se ele tinha conhecimento destes relatos e se fazia ideia de qual teria sido o estímulo para a reprodução.

Abraço
Nuno Silva

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## Ron Shimek

Hi Nuno,

You definitely saw sexual reproduction, probably of the worm, _Eurythoe complanata_, which is the most common large fireworm or amphinomid found in reef tanks.  I have had the same thing occur many times in my tanks, generally when I have turned off the main current in the tanks for a while.  This probably mimics slack tidal flow, and that may be when the animals spawn in nature, although to the best of my knowledge no one has seen them spawn in the real world (as opposed to our magic kingdoms  :SbSourire:  ).

The larvae often develop quite well in our tanks, and I have built an in-tank plankton net and found these worm larvae at various stages of development.

Of course during this period they are really good - and very natural - coral food.  And... the corals love them!!!  

In any case, if the worms are well fed (and in any well fed reef aquarium the worms are well fed) they will spawn regularly.

The image below is a worm larva that is a couple of days old that I collected from one of my tanks several years ago.  It may have been a fireworm larva.

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## Nuno Silva

> Hi Nuno,
> 
> You definitely saw sexual reproduction, probably of the worm, _Eurythoe complanata_, which is the most common large fireworm or amphinomid found in reef tanks. I have had the same thing occur many times in my tanks, generally when I have turned off the main current in the tanks for a while. This probably mimics slack tidal flow, and that may be when the animals spawn in nature, although to the best of my knowledge no one has seen them spawn in the real world (as opposed to our magic kingdoms  ).
> 
> The larvae often develop quite well in our tanks, and I have built an in-tank plankton net and found these worm larvae at various stages of development.
> 
> Of course during this period they are really good - and very natural - coral food. And... the corals love them!!! 
> 
> In any case, if the worms are well fed (and in any well fed reef aquarium the worms are well fed) they will spawn regularly.
> ...


Definitivamente o que viste foi um evento de reprodução sexuada, talvez da espécie _Eurythoe complanata_ que é a mais comum nos nossos recifes. Já tive essa experiência inúmeras vezes nos meus aquários, principalmente após desligar a circulação de água por algum tempo. Provavelmente isso imita a calmia da maré onde estes animais desovam, apesar de não ter conhecimento de que alguem alguma vez tenha visto estes animais a desovar no mundo real (ao contrário do mundo mágico que são os nossos aquários).

As larvas geralmente desenvolvem-se bem nos nossos aquários. Instalei uma rede de plancton dentro de um aquario de onde recolhi diversas larvas em diversos estados de desenvolvimento.

É claro que durante este tempo estas larvas são um optimo alimento natural para os corais e estes adoram-nas.

De qualquer forma, desde que estes animais estejam bem alimentados (e num aquario bem alimentado estes animais estão bem alimentados de certeza) vão produzir desovas regularmente.

A imagem em baixo é de uma larva com alguns dias de idade que eu recolhi de um dos meus tanques ha uns anos atrás. Pode perfeitamente ser de um fireworm.

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## Nuno Silva

Hello Ronald,

Thanks for the post. I confirm that in the moment my circulation pumps were off so you probably right, the stimulus may well be the slack tidal flow. Next time i change my water i will pay attention and wait (with my pumps off) to see the action.

I really like this part of the reef ecosystem: the food chain.This is a great method to feed the corals and others. I wonder: is it possible to make a tank (or a serious of tanks) that actually feeds him self (except the fishes i guess)? I will look for that in my next adventure.

Best Regards
Nuno Silva

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## Ron Shimek

Hi Nuno,

No, it is not possible to make a tank that wholly feeds itself, the first law of thermodynamics doesn't allow it.  However, one can certainly make a tank where the utilization of food by scavengers is recycled in a way to feed other members of our artificial ecosystems!

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## Nuno Silva

Hi Ron,

I dont know if i understood your answer or maybe i did not express myself very well.

What i meant was to build a series of tanks, 3 at least. The first one would be the highest one with the natural filter. Good circulation with only a deep sand bed and lots of Chaetomorpha to export the nutrients. The second tank would have lots of live rock and absolutly no predators. Algae (all the possible species) would grow free with gentil circulation and a lot of animals would appear in the water column like copepods, mysis and others. This would be the best place for little animals. The third one ( and the lower and the smaller) would be a reef with fishes and corals. The flow would return again to the first one. Maybe no skimmer or a little one.

If we made the first and the second a lot bigger than the reef maybe the production of natural food would be enough for the corals to be eating all the time.

This is my idea of a self sustainable reef. When i have the money i will make it happen.

Best Regards,
Nuno Silva

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## Ron Shimek

Hi Nuno,

One can set up such a system, but the bottom line is that the food production necessary for keeping corals healthy is very high; far higher than most reef aquarists realize.  And it is far beyond such a system.  One always needs to augment feeding.

Probably the best reference for the amount of food that is necessary is this one:
Hamner, W. M., M. S. Jones, J. H. Carleton, I. R. Hauri, and D. McB. Williams. 1988. Zooplankton, planktivorous fish, and water currents on a windward reef face, Great Barrier Reef, Australia.  Bulletin of Marine Science. 42: 459-479.

From that article:

The bottom line for most reef fish that we keep is that they normally feed constantly - and eat an item of food - on the average - every 8 seconds all day long.

For the reef animals proper (corals, etc) - the amount of food that is utilized on a Great Barrier Reef community that occupies the bottom area found in a 400 L tank is about 800 g of food per 24 hour period.

So... if you have a reasonable analog of a reef crest in an aquarium, the animals in that aquarium need - on the average - *800 g of food per day*.  *Every day.  Forever.*

The bottom line is that we don't have reef communities in our systems, and so we don't need to feed that much.  Nonetheless, reef animals do need a huge amount of food and they are adapted to get it.  When we starve them - and we mostly starve them - we stress them.  

You should, if you can get it translated, read this article I wrote about 5 years ago.  It is still current. 

The discussion is too long for a forum reply, but suffice it say that probably the major cause of animal death in reef tanks is the lack of appropriate or enough food.

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## Pedro Nuno Ferreira

> You should, if you can get it translated, read this article I wrote about 5 years ago.  It is still current.


 :Olá: Hi Ron
Before any translation is done and published officially, I just need to know if I have to negotiate that with Reefkeeping even though you told me that we were free to translate and publish any of your articles...still, and so far with the exception of Anthony Calfo articles, knowing reefkeeping feelings about translating and publishing articles they publish from negotiations I had with them in the past, could you please confirm. Thank you.

Kind Regards :SbOk3: 
Pedro Nuno

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## Ron Shimek

Hi Pedro,

Ah, yes... they own the copyright to that version.  If I send you a manuscript copy of the article, without their formating, and slightly updated it is my version and I own the copyright, and can give you permission to translate it. 

If you want to go to the trouble of translating it, I will do a bit of revisions and send you the article to work on.  Let me know.

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## Pedro Nuno Ferreira

> Hi Pedro,
> 
> Ah, yes... they own the copyright to that version.  If I send you a manuscript copy of the article, without their formating, and slightly updated it is my version and I own the copyright, and can give you permission to translate it. 
> 
> If you want to go to the trouble of translating it, I will do a bit of revisions and send you the article to work on.  Let me know.


 :Olá: Hi Ron 
Thank you. Yeessss Please do update it and send it to me as I will translate it as a soon as I receive it and publish it here. Thank you once more :yb677: .

Kind regards :SbOk3: 
Pedro Nuno

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## Ron Shimek

Hi, 

Okay, probably will take a couple of days.  Have lots to do right now and that will not be too high on the priority list.  But I will do it.


Cheers, Ron

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