WTF are these things??? Newbie Here!!!

[texranger]

Hey guys, a newbie here....
A few days ago (Tuesday) a friend of mine who's moving out of country give me his 10Gallon tank with some LR (I think) and a False Percula Clownfish, some hermits and nails.
We own a 45gallon freshwater tank and everything is ok with that as far of 4 years of ownership....but saltwater is a entire different world for us right now....
I've reading a few books that my buddy left me, but last night, while cleaning the exterior of the tank , a few critters showed up , like hundreds of them....they are like long thin tubes, different sizes and with some tentacles...my camera isn't a excellent one, but I tried... :yes:
Can someone let me know what are these things please??? They are Hydroids, Amphipods, or what?? What I should do with these guys??? :thinking:
Any help would be appreciated....Thanks in advance,
Nick.

 

[mr_bill]

Looks like a bristle worm.

 

[kdfrosty]

Yup, bristleworm. It was once that that these are nuisances in a reef, but now most believe they are beneficial.. Just dont handle them bare handed.

 

[mudplayerx]

Does it have a segmented body with little bunches of bristles all along the body? If so, its a bristle worm. How long is the guy in that pic? He looks almost a foot long. If so, thats getting close to being a pest bristle worm that will eat corals.

 

[xjayx]

I had a pretty big one once.
It came in on my live rock.
I only ever saw it probably twice.
Then one day... I saw my copper banded butterfly vomit a whole 5 inch worm out and swallow it again.
took care of that problem.

 

[hitch]

Originally Posted by xjayx
Then one day... I saw my copper banded butterfly vomit a whole 5 inch worm out and swallow it again.
took care of that problem.

That's funny..

 

[monalisa]

Originally Posted by xjayx
I had a pretty big one once.
It came in on my live rock.
I only ever saw it probably twice.
Then one day... I saw my copper banded butterfly vomit a whole 5 inch worm out and swallow it again.
took care of that problem.

Yuck!! :scared:
I had a whole bunch of bristle worms in my tank, a bunch of little ones and one 3-4" one. Every night after lights out I would see them come out while I was doing the flashlight dance. I don't do that anymore now that I have fishies, so I haven't seen any bristles for a long time!! Mine have probably gone the way of xjax's...again, yuck!!
Lisa :happyfish

 

[cardsfan16]

That's a bristleworm for sure. Check out the Hitchhiker ID thread at the top of the page for more info.
I was just asking about them in a thread here last night, as I'm finding them in my tank now after adding my first 50 lbs of live rock last week.
If you do a search for them on the web you'll find a ton of information. As KDFrosty said, it seems they were once thought to be problematic for tanks, but now most believe only a few of the 1000's of different types are harmful, and that most are actually beneficial.
There are quite a few types of animals that will eat them. Several types of shrimp, as well as quite a few fishes. If you watch your tank with lights out, you're bound to see alot more of them.

 

[texranger]

Hey guys,
Thanks a lot for your help....These "things" are definetly "Bristle Worms"... I'd took more pics last night....take a look!!
Now my concern is, how many of these guys are "acceptable" ??? :thinking:
I counted like 50ish of them last night, the bigger one is around 5-6 inches and the smallest one is around 1/4 of inch....and that was with the lights on...I could not imagine how many of these "take a walk" when the lights are off....
I should do buy a Shrimp or what??? As you can see, the hermits only talk with them...

Please help me...!!!!! :help:

 

[mr_bill]

Originally Posted by texranger
As you can see, the hermits only talk with them...

Please help me...!!!!! :help:

Hehe, look at the size of that thing compared to the hermit. That would be like us wrestling a 10foot python.

 

[texranger]

Some of our False Percula!!! And the Hermit...of course..let us not forget the hermits...!!!!

 

[jrandolph1]

I have heard that Arrow crabs will eat them but they get pretty big. You might be able to "rent" one from your LFS or take him back for store credit. Just a thought.

 

[ophiura]

If you have a lot, then you should look into how much food is going into the tank. They are scavengers. If there is a lot of food to scavenge, you'll get a lot of worms to do the job. So definitely look into that.

 

[reefiness]

i would get a worm trap set it up a couple nights in a row and u will hopefully have caught at least have of them. then u may be able to sell them to someone who wants them for a fuge unless you have one you should put those in your fuge.