Bristle Worms

[Rndy]

Know I've got a few bristle worms and I know they can cause some issues. I was wondering how I can get rid of them.

Sorry about the low quality.

 

[carey]

You can cut back on feeding the tank and the population should drop. I used a pen type trap that i paid $10 for and it caught quite a few in my tank.

The only bad thing about bristleworms is that they can sting you. Other than that they are great clean up crew and not bad to have in your tank.

 

[Rndy]

I read that they can harm corals?

 

[Schism]

I read that they can harm corals?

Thats always been one of those rumors but ive never found it to be true. The ones to watch out for are fireworms usually much larger, large bristleworms can kill fish or anything they catch but it usually takes a really large bristle worm and a sick or sleeping fish.

I like to trap them when or if i see bigger ones. Anything longer than 4-5" i trap. No reason to let them get huge. That and getting stung by them moving around rock will ruin your day.

 

[Qube]

I read that they can harm corals?

While I've never seen them harm any of my corals, I have seen them grab food out of my plate coral's mouth. No I'll effects from this though.

 

[MacDracor]

There are numerous myths about bristleworms. Long story short, unless they are getting huge or the population is exploding, don't worry about it.
FYI, if something dies in the tank, they will swarm it. So people turn on the lights and see bristleworms eating their favorite <fish, coral, anemone, shrimp, clam, etc> and think the worms killed it. And so, the myth of the big bad bristleworm is born...
That being said, if you are seeing 8 inch long ones, you might have a problem. LOL

 

[Rndy]

Haha thanks. And if one gets that big it will kinda scared.... Lol

 

[crister13]

Lol. If you have a sump and don't like them just chuck them in there.

 

[mikestanked]

I recently re-aquascaped my tank and found a lot more bristle worms than I had thought! If your able to take the rock and stuff out, do it and pick those little *****es off. But be carefully, they "split" easily and are still able to live after. Or stop feeding as often, cut down on lighting times, and watch out for them as they can hide very well, and can be bigger than u think!

 

[OscarFan76]

I'm glad to see this thread. After feeding last night, I had two come out and grab some left over food. One was about 3-4 inches long. Wonderfully creepy. I had seen one previously but I guess they multiply. Glad to hear the won't harms coral.

 

[Schism]

I recently re-aquascaped my tank and found a lot more bristle worms than I had thought! If your able to take the rock and stuff out, do it and pick those little *****es off. But be carefully, they "split" easily and are still able to live after. Or stop feeding as often, cut down on lighting times, and watch out for them as they can hide very well, and can be bigger than u think!

Cutting lighting times will do nothing to control bristle worms, if anything it would make them thrive since they mostly come out to feed at lights off.

Controlling bristleworms is a matter of controlling the amount of food in the tank. A large population cannot be supported by a small amount of food. There is probably 10 for every one you see, so keep that in mind.

Never have bristleworms become a problem for me. As long as you are careful feeding then you will never have a problem besides maybe a large bristleworm that should be removed.

 

[melosu58]

I dont mess with them. They are excellent janitors. Never had a problem with them messing with my corals.

 

[MacDracor]

There is one species of bristleworm that is a predator of gorgonians. It will essentially deepthroat the gorgonian branches. Again, really easy to remove if that is the case, and unless you have a lot of sea fans and sea whips, not really an issue.
They really are a great thing to have in the tank, for the most part.

 

[crister13]

^^^^^ I'm sorry I laughed at that post....... For what the worms do to the gorgonians...... I'm so mature I know! Lol. But that's interesting, never knew that. Thanks for the info.

 

[MacDracor]

It's a funny image. I laughed when I first found that out, too. There really are not very many species of bristle worm that are dangerous to corals, inverts, and fish in aquaria. There's the bearded fireworm (octocoral predator)

and the bobbit worm (ambush predator of fish)

But that's about it. The most common species is Eurythoe complanata, and while it *can* get rather large, it's pretty harmless.

All images courtesy of Wikipedia.