Bristle Worm - Not for sure where to post this

I am cleaning my tank. I have removed all rock, and inhabitants, from the tank. I have mixed the sand out, to clean it. Well right after I started the tank back up, so the protein skimmer can do it's job, I noticed a bristle worm crawling on top of the sand. I haven't added anything big to the tank recently. A small piece of live rock, with mushrooms on it, and a kenya tree/colt coral. This worm is 1 1/2 to 2 inches long.

My question, is should I remove while everything is out of the tank?

Thanks

Nope! A beneficial member of the CUC. If their population gets out of controll it's probably due to overfeeding. When I started there were only a couple but after a year or so there were 100's. After coming up with a strict feeding schedule, 6-7 months later the population had a signifigant decline. Here's a pic of a rock at about 1 year in...

http://i579.photobucket.com/albums/s...9/PICT1176.jpg

Thank you SaltyDawg

What Salty said!

How many are two many? WOW. I just looked in my mixing bucket, where my rock is sitting, while my new sand settles, and it seems like bristle works are coming out of every orifice, of every rock. I am surprised I have not seen them before. There has to be dozens open dozens of them.

LOL....the usual reaction. Do you wear gloves when picking up rocks? If not, you might want to consider it. If they bother you that much, you could do a freshwater dip to try to drive them out. But why risk the die off on the rock. Think about how much waste would not have been consumed if the worms weren't in there. One of the hardest working reef janitors IMO and they are just a little creepy. You say you got a bunch of them.....you know what I'm gonna say! Thats right!....bet you're overfeeding. Other than that I might suggest more flow around the bottom of the tank to keep food and waste suspended in the water column longer and more will make it to your filtration system.

They didn't freak me out Salty. I just want to make sure that they will not harm anything. And your probably right. The pump I have in the tank it at the top. So I will try to get some pumps I can put lower into the tank. And for the feeding, I don't think I am. I try to feed every other day, but half the time I get busy, and it can go days before I feed. Not neglect, just busy with work. Gotta make a living to support this hobby. And I use New Life Spectrum Thera + A Small Fish Formula pellets for food.

The only time I ever removed them was when they got fairly large. Some got to be 8" long and as big around as a pencil. Will they do harm when they get real big...I honestly dont know. But I wasnt gonna chance it. Never had any problems with them though. I actually got a vid of one chewing algae off the glass...never seen that before. I also tried spot feeding an acan pellets a few times but the big bristles and the pep shrimp would try to rob it before it closed. Kinda cool that a worm can find a pellet in an aquarium that fast with no eyes! I'll go see if I can find a couple cool pics. Also...just thought of this....fireworms are bad! They are rare in the hobby but if you find one get rid of it.

Ok. Thanks again Salty

Ok. Went and looked at the rocks again, with my LED shop light. The disappear quick, when the light hits. But there is the one worm that is different from the others. It has like bushy light hair/bristles around the hed of it, and the rest of the body looks like an earth worm, smooth with no hair or bristle's. I will try to get a pic of it. But my phone takes sucky pictures

Attachment 5166Attachment 5167Attachment 5168

Sounds like a peanut worm to me. The Sea Slug Forum - Peanut Worms, Sipunculid Worms

I thought the same thing.

Yes, Carmie, that is what it may be. Looks like it. Thanks. Are they good, or bad?

Here is a link on you tube of a brittle is a Nano. OMG this thing is huge. Like the one you where talking about Salty.

Giant bristle worm looking for food - YouTube

Just for fun I'll throw in the vids of the bristle cleaning the glass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUrkfKUXU7E

And another one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzC2CrVcMk0

And here is a pic of a pep shrimp and a big bristle trying to rob an acan after I fed it pellets.
http://i579.photobucket.com/albums/s...9/PICT1514.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JoshLongton

Yes, Carmie, that is what it may be. Looks like it. Thanks. Are they good, or bad?

Here is a link on you tube of a brittle is a Nano. OMG this thing is huge. Like the one you where talking about Salty.

Giant bristle worm looking for food - YouTube

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A peanut is nothing to worry about. As for the bristleworn vid you posted....I do believe that is a fireworm.

Ok. Well none of them are even close to being that size, so I don't have any fire worms.

I was looking at other video's, and watch an arrow crab, and a coral branded shrimp eating bristle worms. Should I get one of the two, or one of each to control the bristle worm population?

I'd only get an arrow crab if it is something you really want. If you avoid overfeeding the bristleworm population won't get out of control.