Bristle worms - Ahhhhh!

[le9569]

In my 46GL tank, I have about million of britle worms. They are getting really nasty. They invade my corals ...

Last night, I bought a britle trap. When I put the trap down, they are moving forward. Good sign. An hour later, there are several "victims" in the trap. In hope by the morning, I would get a good harvast. Big disappointment, it is empty!!!! all the worms are food are gone! What a trap.

I just lost my patience Any other idea than a trap? Please don't tell me pick one by one by hand

Thanks for your input.

le9569

 

[MikeS]

personally, I wouldn't worry too much about them...for the most part they are beneficial scavengers. A few of the caribbean fireworms can be problematic, but you usually don't see these in the reef tank. Have your corals shown any decline due to the presense of the worms? More than likey they are just scavenging for scraps of food there, the species most often encountered in the reef tank are not predatory, they won't eat live corals, fish, snails, ect. If your corals are doing fine, I'd just ignore the worms, their population will eventually limit itself to available food....

MikeS

 

[macronut]

Bristleworms are scavengers, and are beneficial to your system. If a snail or clam is dying usually they the first to dive in for the smorgasbord. I agree with the above post. I wouldn't worry to much about them.

 

[MCSInc]

Do you feed heavily. There must be plenty for them to eat to support the numbers. Maybe cut back, use a baster to blow off the rocks and vaccume the bare floor or gravel. Other wise you may harvest a bunch of bristle worms and graduate to a hair algea out break or something of that sort.

Just a thought.

 

[brianblack]

I have them also but never caught them doing anything wrong - I had an arrow head crab that would munch on them once in a while. I have a small varaity longest I have seen is about 1.5 - 2 inch.

 

[MarineTeng]

i have a bunch of these and i have seen no problem, though don't try too hard to hand pull them out, i got a bunch of needles in my fingers... didn't hurt but i washed them out to make sure nothing would happen, i'd ditto the scavenger info and what not

 

[le9569]

Thank you all,
This afternoon, I tried to target feed my RBTA, some of the bristle worms jumps into the RBTA for the food. Wow, what a scence!

My worms are as long as 4 inches. Especially at night, when the light goes out. They come out to join a party.

I don't feed much. Just one yellow tang in the tank. And mostly the yellow tang eat my seaweed.

Your input is always appreciated.
Thanks
le9569

 

[MarineTeng]

lol, when first read ur post i thought it said your bristle worms jump into your rtba and the rtba eats them... lol ya mine can get to 4in maybe longer even, they can lengthen and shrink themselves quite a bit

 

[Ashlar]

When we purchased an established 12g nano for my wife, it was crawling with them. We used a trap to remove some of the larger specimens (the key is to check the trap every hour or so and take it out and empty it when you see worms in it.) We didn't dispose of them, however, we just moved them to our 175g tank. (Some of which were >8"- in a 12g nano!)

The biodiversity in her tank was quite small. Few snails, no small feather dusters, no spaghetti worms, few 'pods.

After thinning the worm herd, we put a cup of live sand from the 175g tank into her nano, and shook out some chaeto into her tank to inject some pods.

Since that point, her tank is more in balance, with a healthy mix of critters.