Jrpsaros
11-22-2010, 8:39 PM
I picked up a 29 salt tank today. I noticed it has a bunch of really small orange worms? in the live sand. And a few larger ones (1 inch). What are these, and do they hurt anything? Also there are some very small only a couple cm things that my best guess is a shrimp? will any of these hurt anything?
ScttySnyder
11-22-2010, 8:56 PM
bristleworms they are caused by overfeeding can sting your fish and can sting you if ya touch em. There is some shrimp that will eat them i beleive should google them.
RiVerfishgirl
11-23-2010, 12:01 AM
Most bristleworms (which is what you have) are pretty benign and aren't a bad addition to your cleaning crew since they're scavengers/detritus eaters. Often when people see them feeding on a dead fish or invert they assume the worms killed them, when most likely it was already dead.
You don't, however, want them overrunning your tank, so you can prevent that by not overfeeding or overstocking. You may also want to remove the visible ones.
Even so, there are some species that may harm your inhabitants, So it would be helpful if you could get a good picture for ID.
Regarding the possible shrimp, can't really answer any questions about those without a positive ID, so try to get pics or at least a really good description.