Bristle Worm(s)

[damselsrck]

Hello, I was looking at my tank and I discovered a bristleworm. It is very small in diameter (don't know length yet). I turned off the light and left it off for about 10 minutes, came back and looked in the same place and the worm had stretched out of his hole about 1 inch..maybe, (sorry he went back in the hole so fast it was hard to tell). What should I do to get rid of him or others, if I need to get rid of him at all. How quickly do these grow? I am planning on getting a six line wrasse sometime. Would he be too big for the wrasse to eat by the time I get the wrasse (at the latest mid-summer)? I understand they can be good detritus eaters, but I don't want a problem...help please!

 

[granny]

I Hate The Nasty Things But Everybody Tells Me They Are Harmless. In The Old Days Of Reef Keeping, They Were Considered A Problem That They Would Eat Corals. Now They Say They Dont, But They Do Chew Into Rock So Why Not Corals???
Anyway, There Are A Few Fish That Eat Them-and Arrow Crabs Will As Well.
If You Dont Have Another Crab In Your Tank Or Any Aggressive Fish, You Could Put An Arrow Crab In And Let Him Work On Them. They Are Pretty Cool Tank Inhabitants But Are At The Mercy Of Guys With Bigger Claws!

 

[sufunk]

all of the people in the know on this site have told me that they are harmless and an important part of your clean up crew

 

[ifusayso]

Originally Posted by Granny
I Hate The Nasty Things But Everybody Tells Me They Are Harmless. In The Old Days Of Reef Keeping, They Were Considered A Problem That They Would Eat Corals. Now They Say They Dont, But They Do Chew Into Rock So Why Not Corals???
Anyway, There Are A Few Fish That Eat Them-and Arrow Crabs Will As Well.
If You Dont Have Another Crab In Your Tank Or Any Aggressive Fish, You Could Put An Arrow Crab In And Let Him Work On Them. They Are Pretty Cool Tank Inhabitants But Are At The Mercy Of Guys With Bigger Claws!

Actually, I just read about about the bristle worms and eating corals. I'm at work and don't have the book, but it was called Marine Invertebrates. Anyway it indicated two types of bristle worms and one does in fact eat corals. I believe it is called the bearded bristle worm.

 

[cdnreef]

I found that the arow head crab is the best way to get rid of b-worms just becarefull of the arow head crab verry delicate (I had one that got maulled by a rainbow hermet)
good luck

 

[damselsrck]

Thanks! I think I'll leave him alone. I don't have any corals now...well I have some unkown thing, either a polyp or bta that was a hitchiker on lr. But I don't really care if he eats it becuase I only have flourescents and I think it will die eventually...I did the test of putting a net near it and seeing if it sucks in...the thing didn't know I was coming and I accidentally touched him..poor thing.

 

[chipmaker]

I let all BW alone as they do a great job in helping keep the detrius and junk out of the tank. I have yet to see any damages to my corals or liverock from them. I do on occassion have to thin out my BW, so I Use a BW trap, and then relocate them to the "undesirebales tank" we have setup which is teaming BW, and aipstasia. It also has lots of shrooms, zoos and green star polyps and a few leathers and they all do just fine, even with a huge population of BW and other so called undesireables. Its loaded with a ton of the asterinia star fish, which is IMHO another critter that gets a bad rap.

 

[damselsrck]

I also have at least one asterinia star fish and decided to leave it alone on the advice...or maybe encouragement of Ophiuria...(don't want to frame her if someone has trouble with these!! :scared: )