To kill it not to kill. Bristle worms

[cgthebeast]

So my power went out for roughly an hour last night, me wanting to make sure my equipment an such was fine. So got to flashing my light into the tank when I noticed a couple of 3in worms on the glass. Well I called my brother an we got to looking an saw at least a bakers dozen in worms.
Now after reading up on these suckers, I have gotten mixed reviews on if there a pest or not. So in there lies the question, to kill or not to kill.

[agfish12]

Bristle worms help keep your tank clean. Just be sure not to touch them!


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[dylan p]

They are also a good indicator of to much waste. If you have a bunch and your seeing a lot of big ones it usually means your feeding to much. If you just see a few here and there it's best to leave it alone because they eat any uneaten food and fish waste


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[cgthebeast]

K, I was reading about how they could attack corals an such when they get larger an that had me wotried

[54seaweed]

If you have that many and there big you are over feeding the tank ,
If I come across any big ones over 3 inch I remove them as they can get big I use a metal coffee can to put them in use gloves and a good pair of tongs , I add just a small amount of kerosine to the can and the worms are dead in a short time , just be sure to keep can covered , some bristol worms get up to 8 ft or larger, small ones are good any bigger than 3 in get rid of
never seen or heard about them killing coral

[dylan p]

If you take out the food source I could see them maybe eating soft corals but I've never had it happen. Crabs and other reef cleaners are also capable of eating corals as a last resort.


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[cgthebeast]

Hmm, fair point. I'll watching for now on. I'm gonna play it safe with these guys an make sure their all gone when I switch tanks. Dumping out the substrate am putting the rocks in quartine. I have no idea what their eating as I feed every other day with only the bare min of flake or mysis. At least now I know why my sixline is so happy haha

[54seaweed]

six line wrasse seems to play with them rather than eat them
now the red coris wrasse is a Bristol worm eating machine they hunt them down and suck them in like eating spaghetti the bigger the wrasse the bigger the worm

now the yellow or green coris wrasse even though they don't get as big as the red
they do a good job too cleaning the worms up , coris wrasses are also known to eat flat worms these wrasses are considered not reef safe but thats only because they will eat your snails hermits and shrimp and there also clumsy because they will knock over about every thing in the tank
Me I would classify them reef safe with extreme caution or shall I say at your own risk

I have a red coris wrasse in my reef and not had a issue with him yet

[cgthebeast]

What about other types of wrasses such as a flasher? I am taking my sixline in to trade when I pull everything out to switch over. Hate to see the little guy go but I can't risk that aggression towards the rest of my fish

[mr_X]

The coral eaters are different from the common bristle worms. I wouldn't worry about them. They are scavengers, and will eat dying coral, clams, fish, whatever is available.

[cgthebeast]

So caught the biggest one last night, completely by accident. I noticed a bit of green algae on a few of my crab shells an such so I pulled them out an tossed a few into a bowl of vinegar I had out from cleaning equipment motors. Low an be hold I noticed something odd blocking one of the shells opening an when I pull it out, it's the biggest bristle worm I've seen( not massive as they can get) but this one was pretty bulky an 3 or so inches. They only other ones I've seen that length are very very skinny, like .5 mil pencil lead thickness or just a bit wider.

[BlueseaAquatics]

You could try a coral banded shrimp, also known as a boxer shrimp, they keep bristle worm numbers down and they eat flat worm.


BlueseaAquatics