HELP! I've got thousands of bristle worms in my reef tank!

[lyza]

Can someone please help me with our reef tank!!! We, bought live rock from Fiji like 6 months + ago. Now we have hundreds maybe thousands of bristle worms. We have four traps and this doesn't seem to be putting a dent in their population! What else can I do and are there any reef safe critters that eat them, pet store lady said goby or wrasse will eat them?? Thanx

 

[fishieness]

very very very very few species (and these are rare) will give you any trouble. most are benificial scavengers and very very few will eat corals or fish. most likely, yours are good. if you have that many and they can live, then it means you are overfeeding your tank.

 

[fishieness]

but yes, CBS and six lined wrasses will eat them.

 

[hagfish]

As already mentioned, it's not likely you have a species to worry about. Just try not to grab one when you move LR around, I hear it hurts! I wouldn't intentionally buy anything to remove them until you have reason to believe you have a problem species. Most bristle worms are an excellent part of the clean up crew actually.

 

[1bigboy69]

A purple pseudochromis (sp?) will eat them.

 

[jer4916]

also you can try an arrow head crab.
they do a good job.

 

[fishamajig]

an arrow crab is not necessarily reef safe. they have been known to go after shrimps and

[hr]
small fish, imo not a good idea. i think your best bet would be a 6 line wrasse. I had one in my 125 when i had bristleworms and it cleared right up. plus a fun fish to watch.

 

[clown52]

My friend had an arrow crab and boy did it like snails!! MMmmm MMMmmm slimey.

 

[jobob]

i have a sixline in my 55g reef and he does an ok good, but some of them are bigger than he is, hes only about 1 12in long. but the little ones he gets. so they will help a little. and stop overfeeding ur tank!!!!lol

 

[ripfish]

i have also seen my purple lobster eating bristle worms. I caught him one day with one in each pincher it was cool looking, like he hated them or something

 

[1bigboy69]

One day I was cleaning my Canister filter and I was putting all the bristle worms aside until I was done.
I then would drop them with a tweezer in my tank so my Pseudochromis would grab 'em.
While I was doing that my Clarkii ate one. I thought he wouls spit it out but didn't. I thought that was really weird.

 

[diane4]

I saw this post and have a question. I have read that bristleworms are good to have in the tank because they are good clean up crew. And if you feed the tank to much, you will get an overpopulation of them.
And yet, some people say that it ok.
My question is this, why is it that I never see the bristeworms roam the tank or substrate. I usually just see them emerging from the rock when they smell food in the tank. They come out fast, but dont' usually seem to go far from their hiding spot. And if you don't feed the tank enough, I have noticed that they seem to turn a pale pink or pale orange color.
I wonder if the bristleworms attack other things in the tank if there isn't enough food.
How do you know if you have too many of them. And to get rid of some, I think Bangi said that you can take a section of clean panty hose and put some shrimp meat in it and then the bristleworms come out and get stuck to the stocking and you can dispose of them from there to reduce population.
How do you strike a healthy balance of bristleworms?

 

[hagfish]

Originally Posted by diane4
I saw this post and have a question. I have read that bristleworms are good to have in the tank because they are good clean up crew. And if you feed the tank to much, you will get an overpopulation of them.
And yet, some people say that it ok.
My question is this, why is it that I never see the bristeworms roam the tank or substrate. I usually just see them emerging from the rock when they smell food in the tank. They come out fast, but dont' usually seem to go far from their hiding spot. And if you don't feed the tank enough, I have noticed that they seem to turn a pale pink or pale orange color.
I wonder if the bristleworms attack other things in the tank if there isn't enough food.
How do you know if you have too many of them. And to get rid of some, I think Bangi said that you can take a section of clean panty hose and put some shrimp meat in it and then the bristleworms come out and get stuck to the stocking and you can dispose of them from there to reduce population.
How do you strike a healthy balance of bristleworms?
Well, since most are scavengers, I wouldn't worry about how many you have at all. If you don't have livestock turning up missing regularly, then don't worry about it. Now, if you were overfeeding and that caused more bristle worms and you decided to feed less I could see where you might have a problem of some worms starving, dying, and decaying in the tank.