Bristle or fire worm???

[Jax0311]

Recently got some LR from somewhere other than my normal "fish guy". Tonight hubby and I noticed these hitchhikers hanging out on the rock. What the heck are they and what should I do with them?? Thanks y'all!

 

[jay0705]

Pink are fire worms. Basically same as a bristle just pack a bit more bunch if you touch them. Aslong as you don't keep sea horses your fine. I have them in my tanks, no issues

 

[bang guy]

The fire worms (one type of Bristleworm) in your picture are beneficial detrivores.

 

[Jax0311]

So they won't bother my clowns starfish or dogface puffer? Will they get huge? Some on the one rock are already kinda big. Sorry these are my first hitchhikers.

 

[bang guy]

If they feed well they can get large. If there is an abundance of food then they will multiply.

Removing them means there are fewer critters to eat detritus and leftover food. They will not bother your fish.

 

[Jax0311]

Thank you so much bang! So as long as I don't touch them we are ok lol.

 

[bang guy]

The one I can identify in your picture is very low on venom. The major concern if you accidently brush a hand against it is the spines sticking into your skin. The spines on that one, luckily, are calcium carbonate based. As a result just soaking the affected area with vinegar will quickly dissolve the spines.

There are other species with venom (similar to a bee sting), and others with silica based spines. There's no way to dissolve the silica spines and they can cause a good bit of irritation and pain until your body can reject them. Duct tape or white glue can help to remove silica spines but you have to be very careful not to break them under the skin.

 

[jay0705]

I have removed them from my tanks when upgrading tanks and just gently picked them up and dropped them in the new tank. No issues, just don't squeeze um lol. I agree w bang there very good for scavenging. Now I have seen posts where people think they killed there fish bc they where eating them. They will eat dead fish, they won't kill them to eat.

 

[bang guy]

There are two species of Bristleworm that will kill and eat fish that I know of. One is never found in our systems the other is extremely rare but not unheard of.

The Bristleworms in the picture actually do not have the ability to eat live food. It has to have been dead for at least a couple minutes.

What Jay mentioned is very common with clams. Giant clams can look great right up until the minute they die. So Joe hobbyist goes to bed after seeing his apparently healthy clam and wakes up to it being consumed by hundreds of fire worms.

So Joe now thinks fire worms are the devil when it's very likely the worms prevented the tank from crashing by eating the dead flesh before it degraded and caused an ammonia spike.