Bristleworm Just Snatched A Nassarius

[cm11599ps]

I'm currently battling a bit of cyano so as of today I'm running lights out for a few days. The room is completely dark right now so I just went to the tank with a flashlight to look in. No sooner did I look at the back of the tank did I notice a bristlewoem emerging from under a rock. I was watching it and it kept coming from the rock, maybe about 2-3" but some of it was still under the rock.

Next thing I notice it the worm contracting and that's when I noticed it grabbed hold of a nassarius that was buried. It was alive and struggling to get away but the worm had it from the rear. The worm actually couldn't pull the snail under the rocks because his shell was stopping him.

It was one of those once in a lifetime kind of things.

[mwilliams62]

And that is another reason why every time I see a bristle worm I kill them. I do not want them harming any of my livestock in my tank.

[ValT83]

This summer I saw a really large bristle worm (probably as wide as a pencil and several inches long - I never did see all of him) wrap itself around my (totally live and healthy) 1.5inch shrimp goby. The shrimp goby did a flick-o-tail move and escaped his grip. Needless to say, that (10 gal) tank started to come apart that afternoon, or rather the goby was rescued into my 75 gallon tank.

I had added a small six-line to the tank about a month earlier, to eat the bristle worms before combining tanks (and adding the live rock in that tank to my 75 gallon). He had taken care of most of the small ones, but not the 3-4 REALLY big ones. I couldn't catch him several days in a row, and didn't want to stress him, so he stayed in the 10 gallon for an extra week, and then he disappeared. I never did find him, even after completely taking apart the tank 2-3 weeks later. I think the bristle worm got him. And that is when I learned my lesson: bristleworms are BAD, VERY BAD.

On a side-note: I dried out the live rock before adding it to my tank (sump) and bought a coral-banded shrimp to take care of anything that may have escaped dry-out. Meanwhile, I was hoping that the bristle worms would die off in the (old tank) live sand after several months with no nutrients, and have been keeping the tank up with a skimmer and no feeding since this summer. The plan failed, as bristle worms still exist in the sand. I was thinking I'd just kill the live sand along with the bristleworms with hot water (no salt), as I want to use the sand in a thick-sand bed refugium, and I've waited long enough. Any thoughts? Will this actually kill the bristleworms, or like cockroaches, will they survive nuclear attack? Will this cause any major issues when I re-use the sand?

[Garage1217]

"It was alive and struggling to get away but the worm had it from the rear."


Quote of the year. :thumbsup:

[aleonn]

LOL too bad you don't have video :P