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View Full Version : Bristleworms: How do you get rid of them?


Sytje1234
03/12/2012, 09:40 PM
I have seen where some of you think Bristleworms are a good thing. What is their claim to fame? I'm not quite sure if I want them in my tank. I have seen quite a few of them (smaller ones). But thinking that I really don't want them in my tank. I have been waiting for something to crop up from the Live rock.....I guess this is it. There is also something that looks like it is connected to a white tube that almost looks like aptasia, but also thought it might be a feather duster. One more thing....another that looks like an aptasia but is more feathery and not broad with a center on it and it is green on the outside. I imagine you are going to want pictures. There is a small colony of those. Anyway if you can be of help:hmm1: I would definitely appreciate it. More:reading: :reading: :reading:!

Sk8r
03/12/2012, 09:48 PM
Not a good idea to remove them; they're your best cleaners, get into the holes in the rock, adjust their population to your level of waste in the tank, harm nothing, and predigest fish poo and other waste to a size useable by corals and also help it get down into the sandbed to be converted to nitrogen and released from your tank. It's sort of like a campaign to remove earthworms from your garden---your garden would be a lot happier and more productive with them. Wear ordinary exam gloves when you move rock, etc and your hands will be happier, because they're not the only things in your tank that sting. If you should get a bristle in your finger, hold it under hot tapwater and you'll find it goes away fairly soon.

saltysailor2329
03/12/2012, 09:58 PM
I agree with sk8r on these. I have a few in in each of my established tanks. They only come out when I feed or when there is additional food out there in the water column. I haven't had any issues with them to this point.

Doc_Polit
03/12/2012, 10:09 PM
I've read that putting your finger in vinegar will also melt the bristle(s).

Sk8r
03/12/2012, 10:28 PM
IT will. They're calcium carbonate, like coral skeleton and that white deposit that collects on surfaces from splash. White vinegar will dissolve it---it's a good way to clean a pump, too: just run in in a bucket with vinegar---I use it straight. It won't hurt your tank if a very little gets in by accident, inside the pump.

Sytje1234
03/12/2012, 11:13 PM
I guess I can keep them :eek2::lol2: What you are all saying makes alot of sense, especially in the way they can help to keep your tank in balance concerning the substrate which I probably really need because of only having a few hermit crabs and some turbo snails. I've been trying to think of something that would stir that sand to put into my tank (65 gallons). I guess that problem might be solved on it's own. Right?

On the ID's I'll try and get pictures of the two things that are in my tank that I'm just not quite sure but might have an :idea: of what they might be.

I also wrote down what to do if I do get stung. Great thing to know! Thanks!

Thank you for replying on this with a swiftness. Now I can :sleep: Thanks!

Sk8r
03/13/2012, 01:07 AM
They're real great with the area around the rocks, but to handle your sandbed, I recommend 2 nassarius snaills per 50 gallon---they're actually a form of whelk that's safe, and they clean sand from underneath it. They don't surface very often.
They're white and kind of pretty.

And those exam gloves (at your pharmacy) will protect you from coral stings, bristles, and cranky fish. ;)

NirvanaFan
03/13/2012, 06:43 AM
Excellent advice. I prefer lemon juice to dissolve bristles though. I can't stand the smell of vinegar. Any acid will work though. The exam gloves definitely stop my clownfish from biting me. They must not like the taste of latex!

SweetTang
03/13/2012, 06:55 AM
What are these bristles you can get?? Do they come from a Bristle Worm bite? Like a stinger or something?

I recently found bristle worms in my tank....even found two that were playing tug of war with a sinking pellet that I dropped in!

seapug
03/13/2012, 07:47 AM
What are these bristles you can get?? Do they come from a Bristle Worm bite? Like a stinger or something?

I recently found bristle worms in my tank....even found two that were playing tug of war with a sinking pellet that I dropped in!

Its the bristles that cover the body of the worm. They come off like porcupine quills when they contact your skin. I've gotten a handful on more than one occasion. Not deadly but certainly uncomfortable.

Sytje1234
03/13/2012, 08:41 AM
:eek2: I was about ready to get out my :uzi: Didn't know those were all in my tank. I do alot of work on my tank without my reading glasses just letting it move along at its own pace. It was my daughter that seen them and said "Mom, you have Bristleworms in your tank" I walked over to the tank and even with her pointing at them I still could barely see them, so I got a magnifying glass. "Yep, she was right" I took that magnifying glass and started looking at everything on the rock and sand. :bigeyes::uhoh2: Quite amazing and very interesting to us all standing around the tank looking in. So much life! Very interesting! I think I would recommend people to do this, especially people that are new to the hobby. Never know what you will see, especially the beauty of it all when everything is really enhanced.

The LFS happens to have a great sale on Latex gloves....better get some and a couple of the Nassarius snails. These won't mess with my Turbo's, eh? I love my Turbo's. They keep themselves pretty busy.

Off to the LFS I go.....have a great day!
Oh...by the way...I do wear my reading glasses when testing..:)

Sk8r
03/13/2012, 09:19 AM
In the unhappy event you have a fish demise under your rockwork, two types of critter will show up---bristleworms and nassarius. They can dispose of a fish literally overnight, so that you will find no trace. A dead snail will be totally clean shell by morning. This saves your tank from an ammonia incident.

Curiously the snail is better equipped to actually eat the fish---bristleworms can only sip slime. They can make off with a pellet by suction but cannot actually eat it until it dissolves. We get a lot of queries from anguished reefers who fear a bristleworm is eating an ailing coral. If you see a bristleworm involved with a coral in trouble, the worm is actually performing a service to the coral, by sucking away any decay and leaving a clean edge to the wound. They're really marvelous little creatures---and they come in many species. I had four of a larger type that grew 10" long, but they'd never leave their rock---you'd see them change holes, but that was it. They were very interesting fellows---I even named them, because you knew who was who---Fred lived in this rock and Sam lived in another one. OTOH, there are two worms (really quite rare) you don't want, the eunicid, which looks like a centipede with tentacles atop its head; and the Caribbean fireworm, which is actually a rather pretty sort, with poofy pale bristles and a very broad, flat body. You won't likely ever see one---it can come in on Caribbean rock; it's name is hermodice carunculata, and if you google that, you'll see how very different it is from your common bristleworm. I've been at reefing for forty years and I have yet to see either one, personally.

mwilliams62
03/13/2012, 09:32 AM
Once those bristles get on your hand/fingers can you see them? I was not sure if that was what got my one of my fingers when I was moving some rocks around. Later that day my finger tissue felt kind of hard to the touch and slightly swollen but I could not see any place of entry if one had gotten in there.

NirvanaFan
03/13/2012, 09:58 AM
They can break off at the skin so you can't see them. If they are sticking out at all, you can usually see them, especially if you hold your finger up to some light in the right way. If you're looking down on your finger, sometimes they are basically invisible.

zeeter
03/13/2012, 10:14 AM
Over-infestation of bristle worms can lead to problems. I recently had a LTA that was eaten alive from the bottom up by bristle worms. In retrospect, perhaps that's why the Clarkis were brushing the sand from around the base every day - to get rid of the bristle worms.

sneaton
03/13/2012, 10:23 AM
bristleworms will eat a anemone? my dad said he wanted to trap his BWs because he thought they ate is tube anemone,i told him he was crazy and he wouldnt have so many worms if he didnt feed so much and his tank could crash if he took them out because theyre cleaning alot of food for him....is it really possible for worms to take out a anemone?

Sytje1234
03/13/2012, 10:44 AM
Will they bother my clam?:uhoh2: I just got a small young clam and noticed him moved out of the spot he was in when I was looking at the tank this morning. I had him on the sand. :idea: I should hook up a video camera and take a look at what goes on in my tank at night. Wonder how you can do that..more :reading:

seapug
03/13/2012, 12:04 PM
bristleworms will eat a anemone? my dad said he wanted to trap his BWs because he thought they ate is tube anemone,i told him he was crazy and he wouldnt have so many worms if he didnt feed so much and his tank could crash if he took them out because theyre cleaning alot of food for him....is it really possible for worms to take out a anemone?

Highly unlikely if the anemone is healthy. Bristleworms swarming on a coral, clam, or anemone are usually a symptom of a problem (rotting flesh) not the cause of a problem.

Sk8r
03/13/2012, 05:20 PM
Actually---they can't eat anything but slime. They show up at the scent of rot, and their presence is usually your signal that whatever-it-is, is in partial decay, with the equivalent of gangrene. You do want to seal a fragged wall coral, eg, fox or wall hammer, etc, to prevent them from colonizing the convenient vacant space---from below, they might be an irritant, and the coral can't move, so yes, prevent them getting into the base of a fragged coral.
OTOH, no healthy self-respecting nem will sit around idle while being annoyed, let alone eaten alive (as if the worms have jaws, which they don't). If it wouldn't just move away from the irritance---my bet is that nem was going.

Sytje1234
03/13/2012, 11:43 PM
I haven't noticed any damage at all to any of the corals done by the bristleworms. They just seem to keep themselves mostly tucked into their little holes on the rock. So I have put my :uzi: away and decided to let them be. The clam is also doing well, I think he moved himself to where he felt better. :hmm6: plus the rest of the inhabitants of the tank. I'll try and get some pics of the two things that I'm not quite sure of what they are and get them posted. I can always count on you all for your expertise. Thanks, eh? Maybe I'll get a pic of my tank on here too. That'd be :cool:

OodleyBoodely
03/14/2012, 12:18 AM
If you feel you still have too many, you could add a fish that eats them if suited to your tank. Most Psuedochromis sp. and small wrasses such as 6-lines and Halochoeris sp. relish the smaller worms. My bi-color dottyback would tackle bristleworms that were larger than it was! You'll still have plenty of bw for clean up, but, the fish will keep the overspill out of sight! :)

ghostman
03/14/2012, 07:09 AM
I had a few too many bristle worms for my liking, and some were getting pretty big. I got a melanarus wrasse just because I like the look of him and he has taken care of lots of them. I've seen him with a mouthful of bristles in the morning.

SweetTang
03/14/2012, 07:18 AM
I recently seeded my new 28 nano with a couple of rocks from my DT. I only have a watchman goby, purple firefish, and forktail blenny in there (designed to be a very peaceful tank).....last night I counted 7 bristle worms (all at least two inches long). I am assuming there is more. I see them hanging out in the burrow with my YWG and Purple Firefish. Will they give my fish Bristles that might get infected? In my DT I have a Coral Banded Shrimp and Royal Gamma that I assume keep them in check and holed up. In my nano they are getting brave and even are starting to come out during the day due to no predators. Should I be worried? Maybe put an Arrow Crab in there to thin out the population a bit???

Sytje1234
03/14/2012, 08:30 AM
At the time I seen them...the light was on in the tank. So far I have counted 6 to seven of them. One of them I tried to pluck out with a pair of tweezers (they are still small in size). Couldn't get it.....quick little buggers!;) Right now the inhabitants I have in the tank is a yellow tang, blue hippo, 2 true percula's (these are too cute), 2 chromis's, a scooter blennie, a crocea clam (very young) and a maxi mini carpet anemone. Corals: Mushroom leather, Galaxea, zoo's, Frogspawn, Duncans and Torch Coral and also an unidentified which I think is a Feather Duster. Oh, Turbo Snails, blue legged hermits and of course the Bristleworms. :dance:

I actually was looking at a wrasse the other day.:fish2: :hmm2:

Have to keep all my inhabitants reef safe and close to the same temperaments.

I :reading: alot of what people are saying here on Reef Central and try to stick to these guidelines as much as possible. I think I might look into getting a wrasse, the only thing...the ones I like the most are not reef safe. :sad1:

In fact many of the fish that I think are so amazing and beautiful are not reef safe. I have this sneaky feeling I will be planning on another tank...:dance: HaHa.....falling into that pit::lol2:

GeorgeMonnatJr
04/13/2012, 08:48 AM
Is there a size limit (http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm) to common bristle worms where they become a threat or no longer reef safe?

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb16/GeorgeMon/Pets/Aquarium_Bristleworm3_06APR2012.jpg

sponger0
04/13/2012, 09:05 AM
As far as bristleworms, IMO I think they are cool to watch. Maybe cause I was always the kid outside after a storm to mess with the earth worms lol

But when I had my cube, my rock was loaded with bristle worms. Being my first tank, I had no idea they even existed. I set up my tank and rock. I couldnt figure out why my hands were stinging like crazy when I would grab a rock and move it and so on. Im like wow these rocks really sting haha

After awhile, when I fed my fish the bristleworms would come out to eat also lol. It was pretty neat to me. But then my hermits decided to start pushing them back into the rock. These tanks never cease to surprise me with new things.

NirvanaFan
04/13/2012, 10:57 AM
Is there a size limit (http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm) to common bristle worms where they become a threat or no longer reef safe?

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb16/GeorgeMon/Pets/Aquarium_Bristleworm3_06APR2012.jpg

The one in your link is a type of eunicid worm. Definitely a problem.

That one in your picture is still a baby. Wait until you find one that is thicker than a ball point pen and 8" long unstretched!