bristle worms

[-shawn-]

I was wonder if bristle worms will build tubes out of sand to hide in? I think I have seen a britsle worm in my tank (looks almost like an underwater meal worm, except smaller) and it resides around a tube which is made of sand. So I was just curious if there was a correlation and how is should try to rid my tank of the bristle worms?
Apppreciate the help,
Shawn

 

[@knight]

bristle worms are good. they are detrivores and stir the substrate.

 

[kelly]

Shawn,
I have never seen a bristle worm build a tube. Bristle worms do not look like meal worms, although a while back I had some worms that looked similar to meal worms. You can tell a bristle worm by the thousands of little calcium bristles sticking out of their body. The look like a very fuzzy catepillar.
Do not touch them with your bare hands, the bristles will break off and stick in your fingers, and the are quite irritating, and impossible to remove. (I know from experience.) I picked up a piece of live rock with one on the bottom site, and of course you know where my fingers ended up... on a 3" bristle worm.
According the many posts in this forum, it seems like they are ok, and help move the sand in a DSB. You can search the forum for posts about them. I also heard that green bird wrasses will eat them.

 

[flydan]

Hey,
I agree that bristle worms are good in a reef tank. Those tube-like things you see are probably vermetid snails. Watch one and see if a couple spiderweb looking things come out the end. They use these to collect detris. Also a good addition to your tank.
Dan'l

 

[tidy waves]

Shawn,
It doesn't side like bristleworms by your desciption. If it is, I have to say that I am on the other side of the fence than most people on the BB when it comes to bristleworms. They are tremendous sand stirrers no doubt, but when they reach larger sizes they can destroy corals and even small fish. Six-Line Wrasses will eat the smaller ones and they also make traps for them (Coralife maybe?).
Good Luck!

 

[-shawn-]

Originally posted by FlyDan:
<STRONG>Those tube-like things you see are probably vermetid snails.
Dan'l</STRONG>
Yeah I knew about those, but I wasn't sure if bristles worms make longer tubes, because I can see one tube that is about three to four inches long. It is quite impressive, I also like to watch the vermited snails in action, it so cool looking. (Well not to my girlfriend she thinks it's gross)
Thanks for your help. I don't know why I was just under the impression bristle worms were a bad thing.