here is a good picture of what i believe to be a "firew

[stevefromga2000]

hey guys, i believe that this is a good pic of a fireworm. actually, if you look close, there is really 2 of them. i caught these little boogers today while i was doing my partial water change. the bigger one, which actually i have seen stretch out to over 4 inches. hopefully this helps somebody else out. i know that i had a lot of problems understanding the difference between these guys and the bristleworms. if for some reason i am wrong, somebody please let me know.

 

[Scottm]

they look like fireworms to me.

 

[Fluff]

Looks like fireworms to me as well.

 

[stevefromga2000]

how often or how bad do these things usually multiply? i have only spotted these two, and i got lucky when i saw them. they just happened to get sucked up my by cleaning tube. also, when i change the crushed coral over to sand, are these guys going to get worse, or start disappearing?

 

[Fluff]

I don't think you need to worry about them breeding to plague proportions like with bristleworms. I've never heard of fireworms getting to that point anyway. These may be the only two you ever see.
Here is an article that may help with ID'ing your worms. It may have some helpful info but I couldn't find anything on how often they reproduce. Sorry.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-04/rs/index.php

 

[stevefromga2000]

hey fluff, i just wanted to let you know that i did find more fireworms. i did a water change yesterday, and i pulled out 6 worms, and i noticed at least one that i couldn't catch in the tank. all the worms that i found were red, but i know that at least one of them i pulled out isn't a fireworm. i know that at least 4 of the ones i pulled out are fireworms, but mostly small ones. i did however pull out one extremely large one. it was bigger than the last ones i pulled out. should i get some sort of traps or something, or just keep hoping that i can get them out when i do my partial water changes?

 

[roka64]

These might eat fireworms:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=2285

 

[stevefromga2000]

that's awesome. the only problem is that i'm here in japan, northern japan, and the selection that i have is incredibly small. i will have to venture out soon and look for that fish. thanks a lot for the info though. i really appreciate it.

 

[roka64]

I think there are other fish that eat them too. I just can't remember, a few tangs maybe?

Actually I went to liveaquaria.com and put fireworms in the search, looks like there are a lot of fish that will possibly eat them:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/search/default.cfm

 

[stevefromga2000]

i looked through the site. there's a lot of wrasses in there. first i need to get my sand switched into my tank, and then i can start looking for some fish. thanks for the help. now i can look at that site all the time.