Found worms :S

[DeathWarp]

I was changing my filters and when i was about to throw it out i noticed small yellow worms?? in the bowl that i was holding the fitler over.. and it was still alive. I took a look at the filter itself and i notice more little yellow worm like things.. They kinda looked like little yellow centipides.. Should i be worried???

 

[ColdFish]

Bristleworms? Those are usually red/pink but could be I guess. Make yourself a worm trap. Cut a short section of PVC and cap one end. Drill a hole in the other end and tie on a piece of fishing line. Maybe drill some small holes in the side to so the worms have better access. Put food inside like a shrimp or silverside and leave it lay on the bottom overnight. Pull it up in the morning and see what you have

I've been told that this works, but have never tried it. Have been lucky enough not to get any bristleworms, at least so far.

 

[DeathWarp]

thank you very much for the help. I was assuming it was bristleworms, but just wanted to make sure. It was sort of light pink/brown looking, but it was so tiny, its hard to tell. I will try building that trap tomorrow and hope to get rid of them. I'm not sure if theyre bad for the tank, because everything seems normal, but getting rid of them would be better.

 

[canyon15]

Why get rid of them? There is some argument but the majority of people ( from what i have researched) agree that they are benifical as they make up part of your cleaning crew.

 

[ColdFish]

My understanding was that they are venomous and can be a major problem if they get large enough and you have fish that live on the sand bed or sleep there. I have a friend whose tank is totally overun with them. He just leaves them alone as the tank is small with only a few fish. He's actually had fish die and just left the carcass in the tank saying that it would be totally gone by the next morning, which it is. He did put a dottyback in the tank recently because those are known to munch on bristleworms. His doesn't seem to care for them though. Personally I wouldn't want them, but I guess they can be useful depending on what kind of livestock you have.

 

[jhoelter]

My 29g used to be overrun with bristleworms. Women who saw them usually thought they were creepy, but I didn't mind them at all - they were fun to watch crawl around. One LFS guy said to get rid of em because they would eat my sleeping fish, but I never had a problem (only have 2 clowns in the tank). Though they did snarf down fish carcasses if a fish died.

Ever since I've gotten a bunch of hermit crabs and a Coral Beauty my algae is way down and my bristleworms seem to be completely gone (and I had a ZILLION of em). Not sure if they got eaten, or just didn't have enough algae/waste to live on? I dunno, but there aren't worm carcasses around...

There are different types of worms though, so you may want to do a bit of google-ing to make sure you have regular bristleworms and not some crazy wild worm that truly is no good.

Jeff