scooter blenny/worm question

[buckeye88]

I have some bristle worms in my tank and I want them out like yesterday!! I saw on this site that scotter blennies eat live worms. Does that mean that they'll eat the bristle worms as well?? Because I really don't feel like making a bristle worm trap which I'm scepticle will really work all that well.
Thanks!!

 

[cjml]

Hello I don't think blennies eat bristles-they like pods mostly & some will eat frozen or flake-at least mine do

-some wrasses eat bristles-but not all bristles are bad -most are ok- they help the tank by eating bad stuff. So check out what kind of bristles you have before getting rid of them.

 

[earlybird]

I'm a bristleworm (polychaete) advocate, probably because I don't have any that I can see. They are very efficient cleaners and like cjml said, the majority of bristle worms are beneficial. A lot of older books wrongly claim that bristle worms are bad and for that they have historically had a bad reputation in the home aquarium. That said, there are numerous species of bristle worms. The majority (90+%) are nocturnal scavengers and some "species" can get quite large. Some are very pretty imo and some are really nasty looking. Fireworms from the family Amphinomidae are pretty but bad for a reef tank as they will feed on corals. Flatworms and peanut worms are sometimes mistaken for bristleworms.
I'd love to talk you out of removing them but if you decide to keep them it wouldn't be a bad idea to get an id. See if you can take and post a picture.
There are lots of ways to remove them. Never touch them with your bare hands. You can buy a trap, remove with a net or tweezers, or you can place a hollow rock with a piece of shrimp in it and drip the rock and the worms will crawl out.

 

[buckeye88]

well they haven't touched my corals but every time I buy those tiny hermit crabs to eat my algea they seem to dissappear within a few days and I've always thought it was the bristle worms eating them. Even if it's not them I don't really care much for those ugly things. I would love to post a pic but I usually only see them at night and besides, I don't have a very good camera for taking detailed pics like that.
If they are in fact beneficial I would like to keep them. does anyone know of a thread or website that could help me to identify what kind of worms these are and if they are ore aren't good for my tank?
Thanks again!!

 

[earlybird]

mod edit= earlybird please do not post a link to that site even though it has good information there are direct links in competition with SWF.com. If posting a link take a second to look at that page and make sure it doesnt have any of the things that are not allowed to posted here
Thanks.

 

[sooz]

If you want to get rid of them, and you have room, consider a Red Coris Wrasse - they munch bristleworms down.

 

[m0nk]

A Red Coris Wrasse isn't reef safe and may eat coral. Some people have said (although some sites disagree) that a Yellow Coris wrasse is reef safe and will eat bristleworms, and the Six-line wrasse is supposed to but that seems hit-or-miss. Coral banded shrimp are known predators as well.
I agree though that you may not want/need to remove them, but if you do be sure that the inhabitant you get won't eat more than what you deem as a pest.

 

[earlybird]

I also read that Arrow Crabs will eat them but not really reef safe.

 

[m0nk]

Btw, you may want to look for other signs of what might be doing your hermits in...
Are the shells still in tact? Any snails go missing too? Hear any clicking sounds coming from your tank? Any nitrite spikes? Just a few things off the top of my head to look into...

 

[earlybird]

Originally Posted by m0nk
Btw, you may want to look for other signs of what might be doing your hermits in...
Are the shells still in tact? Any snails go missing too? Hear any clicking sounds coming from your tank? Any nitrite spikes? Just a few things off the top of my head to look into...
Hey m0nk, can I suggest a new avatar?

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by earlybird
Hey m0nk, can I suggest a new avatar?

Hahahahahaha, that's great! I wish I was as cool as Columbo....

 

[sooz]

Originally Posted by m0nk
A Red Coris Wrasse isn't reef safe and may eat coral.
Certainly you do not want to take a risk with your coral, but my firned Ryan has a primarily coral tank - multiple species, and he bought a Red Coris Wrasse to control his bristleworm population and has (so far) had no damage to his corals. He says the Wrasse will even burrow into the substrate and drag the worms out, or drag them out of the LR, and munch them in full view.

Maybe they are reef safer if well fed?

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by sooz
Certainly you do not want to take a risk with your coral, but my firned Ryan has a primarily coral tank - multiple species, and he bought a Red Coris Wrasse to control his bristleworm population and has (so far) had no damage to his corals. He says the Wrasse will even burrow into the substrate and drag the worms out, or drag them out of the LR, and munch them in full view.

Maybe they are reef safer if well fed?
Different fish/situations work for different people, though I'd be worried hearing this that it could be too aggressive at going for the worms and take coral down or bits of it with the worm. Some sites say they also eat inverts. It's possible it could work out here, or for your friend; I just wouldn't trust the behavior that they "could" exhibit, personally.

 

[buckeye88]

Thanks for the advise and the laugh, I needed that!
I want to that site and the worms in my tanks look the most like the Chloeia fusca. Although it did not give much info to whether or not those are good or bad.
I never hear clicking and I really do not think I have a M

ntis shrimp and my snails are all fine and I haven't had a nitrate spike so I'm not sure what's going on with the hermits.
As far as a wrass or coral banded shrimp goes, it's only a 16 gallon bow tank so I don't think that would be big enough for either of those.
by the way, what's a penut worm and does anyone know anything about Chloeia fusca??
Thanks once again!!!!