Bristle Worms

[mangelo]

I've heard a mixed bag of comments about these things. Do I need to get a spider crab to get rid of these things or are they really beneficial scavengers?

[sps1-2-b]

No worries, bristle worms are ok.

[Rae C.]

IMO, crabs are much more of a problem than bristle worms. Avoid crabs! Bristle worms are a great part of the CUC team.

[mangelo]

What about hermits? I have some blue and red leg coming as part of my CUC. I have some cerith snails coming to hopefully make a dent in this algae issue.

[Jerry W]

What they said.

[sps1-2-b]

Some hermits may be destructive in a reef. I personally like the scarlet hermits for reefs (red legs with yellow eyes).

[mangelo]

The reef place that is selling these to me said the blue leg eat tons of algae and the red eat deitrus (sp? - what is that stuff anyway?).

[singold]

Personally, I think the hermits end up being the life of the party most of the time when viewing a saltwater tank. Just my opinion. Just keep some extra shells so they don't kill the snails to take theirs. LFS usually has some extra empty shells. Bristleworms are good scavengers, but must be kept in check, from what I have read.

[woodiecrafts]

Detrius is fish waste and excess food. As far as the hermits I have several and ust as Singold said, the can be real clowns to watch.

[agreeive?fish]

Bristle worms seem to me to be verygood at keeping the saturate and rocks clean of excess food build up and to me they seem to be prety self controlling in population control based upon the amount of food avaliable.. i like my bristle worms

[kel2682]

Ive heard and read that the worms are not a problem unless they are in big numbers or infestation they may destroy coral if run out of food supply , Ive seen in my buddies tank when he would feed they would come out of everywhere hundreds in a 40g breeder he then cut down the feeding and caught some.. they are easily removed with a worm trap.Otherwise a small family of these guys will just clean up

[Saltz Creep]

They're all fun until someone gets hurt








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[SeaHorseTim]

There are about a zillion species of 'bristle worms'. most are very beneficial, a few are questionable, a couple are probably bad, and a bunch are somewhere in between.

Mostly, though, it's quite unusual to find the 'bad' ones in an aquarium these days. They aren't impossible to catch, but it's pretty much impossible to eliminate the entire population (if you decide you want to).

Unless you see one actively eating a zoanthid or softy, I wouldn't worry about it. Even if you do, it's worth a second look to see if it's actually eating that or some crud around it's base.

[Skeptic_07]

i've had rows and rows of the bristle stuck in me hand from carelessly grabbing a rock out of my sump that had a large worm on it. Itchy and unplesant but couldve been easily avoided if i was paying attention. Also, i did not get a rash like the one pictured above. Nothing like that, i just removed the bristles with some tape the rest just dissolved with no ill effects. I'm going to guess that theres different levels of reactions to these things

[jamest0o0]

Bristle worms will not eat coral if they are hungry, it all depends on the species.

[phish guy]

bristle worms = good thing . . .99% of the time

[Sk8r]

Bristleworms are necessary to corals, according to some: they break down fish poo to a size corals can use.
I have a number of 10" ones in my 54, who live tastefully in the rocks and decline to scare my guests.

[Dave & Monica]

Blue leg hermits are great and I have both (red too).Do keep extra shells and you'll have them a long time (unless you buy aggressive fish that find them tasty).

Bristleworms are apart of the eco system. At one time I had flatworms and the chemical called flat worm exit to treat these had an unusual effect on bristleworms - They would come out in the light and twitch around which make them easy to pick out.

My wife puts this little trap in there we bought for like $10 for fosters and smith and pulls some out from time to time. I just leave em.
/ Dave

[jrod11]

One of my favorite things to do when i come home late from going out on a fri or sat night is to get a flash light and look at bristleworms in my tank! Mine seem to be especially scared of the light, so i only have a few brief seconds to check them out.

[jamest0o0]

Yeah they are pretty much good for your tank, just some people don't like them(can't blame them). The size doesn't matter either they still eat the same thing. So it all goes down to species like mentioned before.

[SaltSolutions1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13252974#post13252974 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jrod11
One of my favorite things to do when i come home late from going out on a fri or sat night is to get a flash light and look at bristleworms in my tank! Mine seem to be especially scared of the light, so i only have a few brief seconds to check them out.

try putting a red reflector over your flashlight and you can view your tank longer at night. The red light seems to not bother them as much or anything else for that matter.

[Rae C.]

sk8, r"who live tastefully in the rocks and decline to scare my guests" -- LOL

The kids and their friends love to look for them. They get points for seeing the bigger ones, but they have to stay quiet to point them out and get points. We like our "spiny bastards".