Bristle Worms

futurecanadian

futurecanadian

AC Members
Mar 10, 2007
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Cleveland, OH
Hey guys,

I have some crazy bristle worms. They have no fear of anything. They come out in the daytime when I feed my fish. I bought a trap which I have not had a single capture out of. I also purchased an arrow crab to kill them, but he hasnt seemed to help at all. The worms range in size from less than one inch upto about 4-5 inches.

I really would like them gone. I have even concidered boiling my LR and recycling that tank... this is so extreme though. I am open to anything. Let me know your ideas.

Thanks.

Shawn
 
Are they causing some sort of problem? Most are harmless detritus eaters. I would recommend not going the extreme route of boiling your rock... you will lose far more than you'll gain.
 
Bristleworms are part of your cleanup crew. If you feel you have too many you need to cut back on your feeding.
If you really want them gone, place some food in a pantyhose on the bottom of the tank. The worms can't release themselves and all you would have to do is remove them.
 
Hmmm. A Panty Hose eh? So I add food to it and they find there way in somehow? I need more info. I want to get a watchman goby but am scared that he will choose to set up his home underneath within the rocks and become prey to the worms. The have already killed my flame scallop and a chromi.

Currently in the tank I have, a sea cucumber, a pink/green urchin, an arrow crab and 4 blueleg hermits. Oh yea, and I just put my mandarin goby in there, because he was acting really odd in my main tank.
 
Bristleworms are like earthworms, they can't hurt anything. The spikes are there only for defence so that fish won't eat them. Some fish will eat them, my hawkfish got a facefull of spikes when he killed and ate a bristleworm but he was perfectly fine. They're not poisonous. Also I have a bicolor blenny and he spends much of his time in and around the rocks where the bristleworms are, the bristleworms keep out of his way.

I have zillions (well it seems like it anyway :)) of bristleworms in my tank and I'm very glad they are there, they do important clean-up work.
 
I have to agree that 1) do not boil your rock, 2) they are harmless until they get extremely large and then I haven't experienced a "problem" with them doing other than eating dead matter. I removed a really large one 8" and I now wish I hadn't becuase he kept the holes in the rock clean and really did a lot I didn't realize. I look at the bw as a sign of good reef health. I have them in the sand in my fuge and in the little rock pile for pods and they are there to stay.

Hope you recognize them for the value they provide. If you must remove them I would just wait til they come out in the open enough to pick them up with tweazers...that is what I did when I thought I had too many. HTH
 
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