How do you get rid of bristleworms?

karls

karls

New Member
We just barely noticed our tank is infested with these worms. How do we get rid of them?
We have a Lionfish and an Angler fish and 4 hermit crabs.
We first noticed them a few days after getting our Angler, we saw one was biting her fin! We've never seen them before and after seeing that one we found several more.
we've read about animals that will eat the worms but all of them will get eaten by our Lion and Angler.
we really want to get rid of them after seeing them bite our Angler. We have live rock in our tank and don't know how to get rid of the worms without killing our rocks.
please help.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Hi,
Bristle worms are good guys. We pay good money for live rock so we have copepods, amphipods, slugs, isopods and bristle worms. They only eat the decayed, dying and dead. If one was nibbling on the angler...it's a sick fish, the eaters of the dead don't always wait for the fish to die before they begin, sitting too quiet and still for too long is enough to get them going. We don't want them in a seahorse tank because they do sting, and seahorses are known for sitting quiet and still.
If there is not enough wasted food, the bristle worm over population will die off. If you overfeed your fish, the bristle worm population booms because of all the abundance of food available.
 
S

saxman

Guest
Flower,
The issue some folks have with SH and BW's isn't that SH are often sedentary, it's that the BW's come out to feed on the mysis, which puts them in the same proximity as the SH, and altho it's VERY rare, the SH can snick up the BW (in all of our years on the org, we've only seen it happen twice, and once the SH died). An adult SH won't sit still for a BW to bother it, I can guarantee you that.
karls,
If you have lots of BWs, there is indeed an issue with a food source, usually excess food. However, if you want to remove them, get a piece of old stocking (the toe works really well), and put some food in it. Tie it shut with a string, and lower it into the tank at lights out. Wait a couple of hours and check on it. Once you see the BWs all over it, simply lift it out of the tank by the string, get rid of the worms, and repeat as needed until you're happy. The "bristles" tend to stick to the stocking, so they come right out.
HTH
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by saxman http:///t/395196/how-do-you-get-rid-of-bristleworms#post_3518123
Flower,
The issue some folks have with SH and BW's isn't that SH are often sedentary, it's that the BW's come out to feed on the mysis, which puts them in the same proximity as the SH, and altho it's VERY rare, the SH can snick up the BW (in all of our years on the org, we've only seen it happen twice, and once the SH died). An adult SH won't sit still for a BW to bother it, I can guarantee you that.
karls,
If you have lots of BWs, there is indeed an issue with a food source, usually excess food. However, if you want to remove them, get a piece of old stocking (the toe works really well), and put some food in it. Tie it shut with a string, and lower it into the tank at lights out. Wait a couple of hours and check on it. Once you see the BWs all over it, simply lift it out of the tank by the string, get rid of the worms, and repeat as needed until you're happy. The "bristles" tend to stick to the stocking, so they come right out.
HTH
LOL...Thanks for clearing that up...I really couldn't think of any other way a SH would have a problem with a bristle worm, so once again I learn something new.
The method you added on how to catch them is awesome, That bit of info is going to be passed on I'm sure. it certainly is much better than those little useless traps they sell.
 
karls

karls

New Member
Since i posted this, my husband cleaned the tank and took out the sand and empty hermit crab shells.
someone at the store he buys from told him to get Arrow Crabs.
So he got two, just recently our fishes ate the arrow crabs just like we thought they would, but the crabs did survive a couple a weeks. we've been feeding the fishes less often, which might of been why the arrow crabs were eaten.
Also, the empty hermit crab shells my husband took out, still have living bristleworms in them! He put them in a plastic baggy with no water and he had it sitting out for weeks and the bristleworms living in the shells are still alive! they have been sitting out of water in nothing but the shells since i posted this and they haven't died.
I'm afraid we'll have problem, i don't want the worms biting our angler, we got her only 2 days before the worms started showing up and we've seen that one bit her already. I'm pretty sure she isn't sick, but she does sit for long periods of time.
we'll try fishing them out like saxman said. hopefully we can get them under control.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by karls http:///t/395196/how-do-you-get-rid-of-bristleworms#post_3520977
Since i posted this, my husband cleaned the tank and took out the sand and empty hermit crab shells.
someone at the store he buys from told him to get Arrow Crabs.
So he got two, just recently our fishes ate the arrow crabs just like we thought they would, but the crabs did survive a couple a weeks. we've been feeding the fishes less often, which might of been why the arrow crabs were eaten.
Also, the empty hermit crab shells my husband took out, still have living bristleworms in them! He put them in a plastic baggy with no water and he had it sitting out for weeks and the bristleworms living in the shells are still alive! they have been sitting out of water in nothing but the shells since i posted this and they haven't died.
I'm afraid we'll have problem, i don't want the worms biting our angler, we got her only 2 days before the worms started showing up and we've seen that one bit her already. I'm pretty sure she isn't sick, but she does sit for long periods of time.
we'll try fishing them out like saxman said. hopefully we can get them under control.
Hi,
Bristle worms are good guys, why remove them? Also the population will dwindle naturally if the food source isn't there to sustain them. If you don't overfeed your fish, they will die off on their own. They are the eaters of the dead and dying, which means they also feed on fish food that got lost in the tank that the fish didn't eat....keeping the tank clean and tidy. Fish have been living in harmony with them for a very long time in the ocean and our fish tanks...We buy live rock to have them, and other little eaters of yuck to keep our tank nice..
 
karls

karls

New Member
I don't see how they can be good if they are biting our angler. she isn't a sick fish or anything. and I don't think feeding the fish less is going to kill them off if they are able to survive in a plastic zip lock without food or water for weeks.
I really need more tips on how to get rid of them.
 
karls

karls

New Member
The other day a gray looking bristalworm was found in the tank. I've read that they are bad. help! how do we get rid of it?
 
S

saxman

Guest
what do you mean by SH?
SH = Seahorses
As for anglers sitting around, it's mostly what they do, altho Histrio histrio tends to be more of a swimmer.
 
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