bristle worms

[greg803]

I have heard that they are good and others have said they are bad. I was wondering if anyone knows? are there different kinds of bristle worms? The one I have are a pinkish
color they turn grey when they strech out.

 

[bang guy]

There are over 10,000 kinds of Bristleworms. A dozen or so are known to be harmful to a reef tank.
IMO leave it until you positively identify it (I'll need a good closeup picture of the head) or you actually see it damage a living specimen in your tank. Most are very beneficial.

 

[kingspade]

what about the white clear looking ones, my uncle has them in his tank, i told him i had heard on here that they are beneficial. we havnt seen them bothering anything or any signs that they are

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by KingSpade
what about the white clear looking ones,
see my post above.

 

[debbie]

Bang Guy,
Can you tell me what cause so many of these nasty things in ones tank? I have an explosion of them right now, tons of baby ones. I have carefully watched my feedings so nothing falls to the bottom. I only feed the fish a tiny bit at a time so they eat it all to help prevent this problem. So what are they living on?
Is there anything that will eat them?
I do have a dwarf lionfish so it would have to be compatible with it.
Deb.....

Greg 803 sorry for the high jack..... :happyfish

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by Debbie
Bang Guy,
Can you tell me what cause so many of these nasty things in ones tank? I have an explosion of them right now, tons of baby ones. I have carefully watched my feedings so nothing falls to the bottom. I only feed the fish a tiny bit at a time so they eat it all to help prevent this problem. So what are they living on?
If there isn't enough food then the small ones will die off. They cannot reproduce without food. Fish waste is the ideal food for many of them.

 

[chipmaker]

I agree, for the most part bristle worms always get the bad rap and get caught and flushed....I have a huge

in my one tank that is like a pencil, and he is awesome to watch forageing for food....It has yet to do any damage to anything.......If your dead set on getting rid of them make yourself a birstleworm trap, all it takes is a slim plastic tube like a pill container, with a hole in it and some bait....place it near the live rock and wait. YOU can tie a piece of monofiliament line to it to retreive it. Some folks also place a bit of filter floss n a pill container with soe bait and drill a hole for an entrance, and often times the worms will stay in the tube for a long time under or in the filter floss...
I have a book by semick or somethng like that and in it he states out of al the

out there literally thousands of different kinds there is really only a handfull that are a problem and fortunately they are not as commonly seen as the good ones are.