Bristle worm help

[bubblegirl420]

Hi, we have alot of larger bristle worms. Ours are a purple and red kinda like a gummy worm. Every book that I have found said that they are carnivorous. Someone (I can't remember who) told me they will like crawl into a fishs mouth and eat them from the inside out.. that sounds far fetched to me, but I don't know. Our mandarin dragonet ate one the other day... Does anyone know how to get rid of them? We have tried the bristle worm traps in the tank, and we have also taken liverock out of the tank and isolated it with the traps. We caught a baby brittle starfish, but no worms. My boyfriend has been plucking them off with a set of tweezers. Any advice??

 

[Fluff]

Bristleworms are great tank cleaners. I've never heard of one attacking a fish unless the fish was down and dying anyway, in which case, the worm is doing what it's designed to do. Clean up the waste. The worm numbers will fluxuate depending on food source. If your over feeding your tank and there is plenty for them to eat, they will reproduce faster in my experience. Cutting back on waste should slow them down. Can't think of a reason why you'd want to get rid of all of them since they are helpful. That's not saying you won't get a rouge worm from time to time but it's seldom that happens.

 

[steve-s]

You'd be wasting your time and in all honesty doing your tank no service. While large bristleworms (12"+) would be a concern as would Eunicid's and possibley some species of fireworm, common bristle worms are of no concern. They "tale tale" you where told about the fish eating them is also completely false. While there are cetrain species (Trematodes/Nematodes) of worms that can be an issue, these are not one of them. Leave them be, they harm little if anything.

FWIW, if you see even one of these worms, you have hundreds. Their population is directly linked to the amount of available food in the tank.

Cheers
Steve

 

[bubblegirl420]

Thank you so much. I have been really freaked out about my beautiful mandarin getting eaten alive. That would really really suck.