New insect in my tank....

[le9569]

Hello all,
All of sudden, I found out that there are lots of this type of insects in my liverock and sand. They buried down the sand bed. They are about 2-3 inches long. They look scary. Below are some pics I tried to take a good shot.

Is this really bad to have these insẻcts? What are they called? Do they harm the water quality?

Thanks for your input.

le9569

 

[Curtswearing]

Bristleworms are good detrivores. They are good. Just don't touch them with your bare hand.

 

[le9569]

I did some search on the net and found that they are bad!!!????
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/msubpestbworm/a/aa102198.htm

http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_net/0697/0697_2.html

Thanks

 

[Curtswearing]

Nope....some of them are bad but not most.

Poly=Many
Chaete='roughly' feeted

Or many-feet, many-bristles, or bristleworm.

An excess of bristleworms is bad because it means you are loading your tank with too many nutrients. Some bristleworms (particularly Eunicid spp.) eat soft corals. A few species are also dangerous (namely fireworms). However, most are harmless detrivores.

In fact you will find that many people purchase them on purpose.

I applaud your research efforts. However, you didn't dig deep enough into the links. Saying all polychaetes are bad is like saying because XYZ dog tends to bite means that ABC dog is going to bite too.

EDIT: I bet if you captured them, you could find many people who want them.

Well, after that dire warning, I have to reiterate that the vast majority of polychaete species are at worst harmless to a reef tank, and at best beneficial in maintaining a healthy environment. The simple fact is that, along with a multitude of small arthropods, polychaetes are the marine equivalent of insects on land; there are some insects (like wasps) that you'd prefer to avoid, but for the most part we ignore "bugs" and many of them are beneficial. Polychaete worms are extremely abundant in all marine habitats, and I doubt there is ANY reef tank in existence that does NOT have polychaetes in it. Most reef habitats that have been censussed have on the order of 10 to 20,000 worms per square meter, and in some muddy-bottom areas with high organic

 

[ronj]

some people don't like them in their tanks..i used to try to kill all of them that i found.. i really don't care about them anymore..they are everywhere now!!

 

[burning2nd]

arrow crabs are good hunters but dont do that

i say just leave em unless you see them jumping up and down on your coral or your fish flying around with a giant spike hanging out the side

 

[wrightme43]

Be carefull picking up rocks. I am allergic to the little things. They make my fingers swell up like a sausage, sting like they are on fire, then I cant close them, then they get really really hard flesh under the skin, then a few days latter the skin starts to crack and peel off. Then it bleeds. I am not real fond of them. I have one customers tank that has just always been a bristle worm tank. They over feed pretty heavily, and only have a hang on emperor 400 and a prizim skimmer. Why this tank does so well I will never know. But it looks awesome all the corals grow great, it has a giant deresa clam, a great looking rose bulb anemone, a purple tip frogspawn that constantly has to be fraged, and just does great. Full and I mean just full of bristle worms. He loves the dang things. Doesnt want me to anything to get rid of them. I hate cleaning that tank. I had to take all the live rock out, and clean all the area that I couldnt get to. So I ended up with bristle worm welps all the way up my arm. His wife sprayed me down with benadryl spray. LOL

 

[jake65]

arrow crabs are good hunters but dont do that

i say just leave em unless you see them jumping up and down on your coral or your fish flying around with a giant spike hanging out the side

dang that would be cool looking ( if it was my pos blue damsel that I can't catch)...lol