Giant bristleworms spawning in my tank!?!?!

[Faciosity]

I was moving some things around in the tank the other night, when all of a sudden, a giant bristleworm extended itself about 4 inches off the rock and spewed a huge milky white cloud into the water column. I set my skimmer to pull out extra water, and proceded with a water change. Some of my worms are easily 10-12"+ and I'm starting to worry about overpopulation. From what I understand, they don't harm anything, and have been a very beneficial part of my CUC, but I can't ever rmove something in the tank without getting poked by one and it's getting quite annoying. Anything reef safe that will eat them?

 

[NWDiver]

Not that I am aware of, my puffer eats them, but he would only eat them after he snacked on the coral.
I know some triggers will eat them, but again not so reef safe.
I hope someone can offer useful advice

 

[Husker12181]

You could try a bristle worm trap, I always used the tweezers at night method of removal. You wont get the little ones but the big ones you have you could probably grab.

 

[LeslieH]

Cut down on feeding for a while then drop some silversides into the tank. The big worms should come out and you can grab them. Wrapping the meat in cloth with a coarse mesh (like tulle) that the worms will crawl into also helps trap them.

Fireworms are dioecious - they need both males & females to spawn. If only one animal was spewing you don't have to worry about more recruitment.

 

[Chichas01]

Sounds like a great little zoo plankton generator. You could just wear gloves. Sometimes if I have to move rocks I'll put a couple pair of latex gloves on and that offers some protection. I have a pair of Coralife aqua gloves as well and those work really well.

 

[lovemystarfish08]

I noticed this post is old, but I have had my tank for a little over a year and I have had a constant fight with bristle worms. I have a coral banded shrimp, and he does awesome at catching and eating those nasty little creatures! at one point they seemed to be taking over my tank I was so desperate to get them out I asked a different fish tank expert I deal with and he told me dunk my. live rock into a bucket of club soda and the bristle worms would squirm out of the rock dying looking for oxygen. atleast 10 bristle worms later I thought oh it worked. but I still havemore, and they are little and my shrimp continues to eat them today I had a very large never ending it seemed bristle worm spewing white cream stuff and my shrimp instantly ran to the top of the rock it was at. /: if you still have the problem definitely get a coral banded shrimp to fight back on them

 

[jill]

So glad to find this thread. Just tucked my nano in and freaked out when I saw the water had become completely cloudy! It was clear an hour before. The clowns didn't seem happy about it.

We watched for a minute and saw clouds of milky stuff coming from under one of the rocks so we lifted it and found 15 or so huge bristleworms. I knew there were some and I liked them but when my tank turned opaque I decided they had to go. I still feel a little guilty about flushing them ...

Then I did a 10 gallon water change. I always keep made up water on hand for emergencies.

The water looks better now and I don't see anymore clouds of goo spewing. I will probably do another wc in the morning.