Bristle worm EXPLOSION!!!!

[Cohenjl13]

Like a boom pew pew, bang explosion! Now I know these buggers have been hiding in my 10g nano for a while now, I see one every other week or so.

I have been letting my tank sit for about 6 months with only a hermit crab in there to make it over run my copes and amphipods, which it has been. So yesterday I added my first fish, after some days in QT, a Spotted Green Mandran Goby and he's looking great. Fast forward 24 hours of him being in the tank and for some reason my tank is completely FILLED with bristle worms of all sizes, wondering around in the open with no cares.

Can someone explain to me, and reassure, why they came out the wood work today?


Is a Mandarin a predator so they are now trying to run? Why not hide better...?

I'm sitting in front of my tank now grabbing the ones I see and none of them are dead either so I don't think it's a sickness thing. All the guys I grabbed were just out and about and I sucked them up with a turkey baster. Thanks in advance!

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Did you try and feed the fish? With 6 months of no food most should of died off. Mandarins aren’t predators of bristle worms but will quickly wipe out the pod population in a 10g. Do you have a fudge that you can stock with pods that u buy?

 

[Cohenjl13]

Did you try and feed the fish? With 6 months of no food most should of died off. Mandarins aren’t predators of bristle worms but will quickly wipe out the pod population in a 10g. Do you have a fudge that you can stock with pods that u buy?

I would feed the Pods a chunk of dried Spiralina once a week or so.

And yes i have a refuge i have stocked with the pods, i keep a ball of chateo in there and ill move it over dip it in the main tank then put it back in the refuge every so often to get some guys out of hiding

 

[Cohenjl13]

Also, that part I'm confused about isn't that I have them, it's how they all came out at the same time. Why would they stay in hiding for 6 months then I can a cup full in 30 seconds!?!

 

[Sniperhank]

These guys are a member of your clean up crew. 6 months of no feeding, with that many worms, points one to believe that you are over feeding the tank. Lots of and large bristle worms tells you that you are feeding too much. Tie that in with it being so long afterwards, there is a load of gunk in the sandbed.

That aside, mandarins are very hard to keep fish. They only eat pods, though some have been able to train them to consume mysis shrimp, and everytime one pecks at a rock they are trying to eat. Someone once theorized it was once every 10 seconds or so due to how their digestion works. You will have to work hard to keep a mandarin alive in a tank this small. Keep a close eye on it as even though we feel we are successful with the fish, they are really starving as it takes them a long time to starve to death.