Mantis shrimp, Bristle worms

[pm64971]

I saw this mentioned in a post about LR, and wondered what they are?
Are Mantis shrimp and Bristle worms bad? What do they do? Why do people not want them? How can you get rid of them?

Thanks,
Phil

 

[edgekrusher]

Mantis Shrimps are not good, They will kill everything in the tank given the chance. You can tell if you have one if you hear a popping noise coming from the tank, and they usually burrow in the LR so you may see brown dust coming from the LR.
Bristle worms are good, they are a sign of a healthy tank, though they are horribly ugly. They eat detrius and are very good scavengers.
HTH

Peace

Edge

 

[dansemacabre]

If I remember (and learned) correctly, mantis shrimp have a claw that can pierce the shells of most crustaceans. This same claw is powerful enough to crack/shatter/break/etc a glass aquarium. If your aquarium is glass, this poses an obvious threat. I know I don't want 120 gallons of water all over my house. HTH.

 

[pm64971]

So, how do you prevent mantis shrimp?
Does this mean I want bristle worms?

 

[dansemacabre]

I've read a few things on how to get them out of your LR. (mine comes in tomorrow =]) You can do a quick freshwater dip and they should come running out, I've also read that a saltwater dip in water with a specific gravity of 1.03 will make them run out into the bucket. I'm not sure how it affects the declicate inverts/corals/bacteria on the LR, that's just what I've read. I'll be curing my LR in a large rubbermaid tub, so hopefully I can find the buggers if they're in there. As for bristleworms, I recently learned this myself. Some are good, they eat detritus and stir up your sandbed a little bit to get the water down to the anoxic areas. A few species, apparently, are coral eaters, so if you want corals, you'll have to get rid of them. Which they are and what they look like, I couldn't tell you. Try google'ing "bristleworms" and see what you come up with. Hope this helps ya. Anyone else, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[steve-s]

Most if not all the bristelworms you will get with LR should not pose a problem. It is actually quite rare to get ones that will cause a problem. You can read about them >>here<<

Cheers
Steve