New Hitchhiker on my Live Rock...

[capj64]

I was checking on my Damselfish and two hermits that I have in my 6 gallon tank and..."Oh my gosh, Honey, come look at this thing", "No, really come here", "Get in here! There's a worm in the tank!" :censor:

After looking up salt water worms on google images, we saw that we have a small Bristle Worm. Yuk!

My husband is impressed, I'm horrified. I know what I'll be dreaming about tonight. But since we're not doing coral just yet and probably never in that tank, he wants to keep it.

I've grown admiration for my hermint crabs and actually think they are adorable, but I don't think I'll ever find a fondness for a Bristle Worm. *shutter*

 

[thincat]

Keep looking Carla, there's more to come! lol

 

[melosu58]

Bristle worms are great janitors. He`ll help eat any uneaten food in your tank.

 

[capj64]

We now think that there are two of them. We're turning on a red light tonight and watching to see what happens. I guess that will be my entertainment while everyone watches the game. Go WVU!

 

[capj64]

We have three. Really creepy. How big will they grow?

 

[dannyb]

They can get really big. I just moved my tank and pulled one out about 20cm long. Maybe bigger. Its bristle legs were about the size of a normalish bristle worm. It was scary.

When i use to feed my eel squid, He'd pop is head out too looking around for something to feed on.

 

[Tank2379]

Good Ole Bristle Worm just make sure you don't touch them they can be a little stingy. Oh and Sorry about WVU....

 

[capj64]

So far we've only seen about 2", they've not come completely out in the open yet. At least not when we're looking
Thanks Tank. Guess I'll have to wait to burn my couch

 

[thincat]

They will never come completely out. That's why it's so hard to know how big they are until you break down a tank. There are many types of those worms so not all will get hugh.

 

[capj64]

Finally got a picture...now we think there are probably four of them. They come out (a little) when I feed the fish.

 

[thincat]

Now that's a great picture. Nice!!!

 

[Mitchell0605]

Nice. I have a Chiton that's 3'' long and 1' wide. That's scary. I also have a pretty big bristle. From what I saw off him + his thickness I reckon he was about 5" long.

 

[Hinds04]

I have one that I was told to take out of the tank because they multiply like crazy and will eat about anything. Just today I picked up a rock and found several brittle stars!!!

 

[capj64]

I took out my hermits and put them into my 29 gal so the only thing left in the tank with the bristals is the Damsalfish. Now I have red and green algae growing like crazy so I take it the bristals don't eat that
I'm still not sure what to do about them. I'm just glad they're not in the 29 gal.
Oh, and about the Damsel...it's my husband's favorite fish because it rearanges the tank every day. If I smooth out the crushed coral, it's back in mountains and valleys in only a few hours. It's made a cave by digging out under a couple of rocks and now can swim completely through it. Crazy

 

[thincat]

So is your sandbed made up of crush coral? Not a good sandbed because detritus gets into it and it's very hard for you and your clean up crew to get to it, Aragonite sand is a much better bed,

 

[Mitchell0605]

With the crushed coral you will have to gravel vacuum it often, every month or so, to remove all of the detrius in the sand that, as TC says, your CUC can't get to.

 

[capj64]

When I went to the LFS I asked for "live sand" because I read somewhere that was how you started a SW tank (not here), the guy gave me the crush coral. I now know the difference (from here) and plan to add a little sand every week once I buy it. My whole tank was started "wrong" cause I didn't do the reading. We decided we were going to do it and went for it, didn't realize what we had to do. But it's been 4 1/2 weeks now, everyone is still alive, except for a shrimp that died the first night. We were taking a sample of our tank water to have it tested this past Monday, hoping that maybe we could add a couple more livestock, but I fell with the jar of water in my hand, cut an artery in my palm...so needlesss to say we never made it to the LFS. But there's always next week

 

[Zer0]

you cut.. and artery. Nice. That must have been a joy. Hope you're okay now.

 

[capj64]

I've got some ugly stitches and it's pretty sore, but I heal fast. Bad thing about it is that I'm a screen printer and it's mini league season...my kids have come to my rescue. Everyone is inking and heat pressing numbers for me

 

[thincat]

When I went to the LFS I asked for "live sand" because I read somewhere that was how you started a SW tank (not here), the guy gave me the crush coral. I now know the difference (from here) and plan to add a little sand every week once I buy it. My whole tank was started "wrong" cause I didn't do the reading. We decided we were going to do it and went for it, didn't realize what we had to do. But it's been 4 1/2 weeks now, everyone is still alive, except for a shrimp that died the first night. We were taking a sample of our tank water to have it tested this past Monday, hoping that maybe we could add a couple more livestock, but I fell with the jar of water in my hand, cut an artery in my palm...so needlesss to say we never made it to the LFS. But there's always next week

Carla, I'm so sorry to hear that. I do hope you are okay. To help you recover I would like to tell you a short story...I was clipping my MaCaw's wings and nails the other day and I over cut Czara's toe nail. She lunged up and bit me, Not once but three times. I did not realize how bad I was bleeding until I put her away. there was a trail of blood that looked like a war movie. I stopped the bleeding in all but one of the bits and a Doctor put three stitches in my ring finger. OUCH!!! I hope this makes you feel better.. haaha Auwee...lol