Bristle Worm.. Nothing to worry about?

[mpcolson]

Hello again folks,

I finally got my tank out of the initial cycle today! Just as soon as the bells were ringing and I began to do a little Irish jig in my living room, I spotted a bristle worm in my tank. Actually saw two of them.

Tapping into my vast resources I've bookmarked from this fine forum, I found this article

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-04/rs/index.php

It seems to say they, the worms, are no big deal. Am I interpreting this correctly? I want to start gathering coral in a few weeks. I would hate to spend the money there and find them turned into a café for this colony of worms.

Could you clear this up for me please. If I need to remove these out of my tank, how do I do this?

[Rostr02]

I have tons of these in my sandbed. Nothing to really worry about unless they get large. I still tend to remove them when I am QT' ing my corals. I know some can be a nuisance especially if they are not bristle worms. Most say that they are good for your sand bed as they do aerate the sand when they borrow into it, as well as being a detris eater. I tend to leave them go.

[mpcolson]

Thats what I was thinking. None of them are big. I saw them in the water yesterday and thought they were fish poo. I had done some window cleaning at the gravel level and stirred things up.

I also was reading more on this after I posted this thread and found some people suggest an Arrow Crab to keep the population of the worms down.

Does anyone have a position on the Arrow Crab?

[SaltyDawg]

I have a ton also. Never seen them bother anything. I've seen them on the sand but haven't seen them in it. The weird thing is when I feed flakes I see a couple. When I feed bloodworms or the fish "mush" combo they come out in full force. It freaks out the wife but I have gotten used to them. Someone once told me that the population explosion is due to overfeeding. Here's a pic after feeding the mush(brine,mysis and about 10 other things).

[mpcolson]

I read the same thing, over feeding is the primary cause.

I agree with your wife... that's looks like a Quintin Tarantino still shot! buggers!

[Rostr02]

I had an arrow crab before he got too hungry for my snails and small hermits. If you have some large one's like salty does . . . .Then you can try a large pair of forceps or a baited bottle lifted up on a piece of live rock, so basically they can get in but not out.

Salty I would try the bottle trick, 20oz bottle cleaned very well, fill it with water then bait it with your "mush" then let it lay against that rock. Looks like medusa's hair!

[PapaMcEuin]

Dottybacks, psuedochromis are supposed to eat the little ones... Oh, and never touch them. Let me tell you, the pain can be horrible. I was cleaning off some caulerpa infested rock and got hit by one on the side of my middle finger just past the nail. After pulling out the cactus like needles, the pain stayed. And Stayed. And got worse. For 3 days it felt like I just held my finger on a stove burner set on high. Only thing that would make it feel better was ice and trying to forget about it. About a week after, the skin turned white and started hardening and sluffing off. By the second week the side and entire front of my finger first layers sluffed off. After that, another two weeks for the underskin to heal and grow back.

That is what I call, not fun... long tongs/tweasers and becareful working the rock with them... The one that got me was sizeable but hiding in a crack. I don't know if they get more poisonous with age, but man....

[SaltyDawg]

LOL...you don't stick your hands in my tank without gloves on. I'm no expert by any means but I consider them a benificial part of my CUC. I've tried hermits and snails a few times but the hermits hunt down the snails and move into their shells. Then they go after each other. I have about 20 extra shells in there for the crabs but I think they like to kill snails for the fun of it. So now I have 3 nassarius and 2 turbo snials and a but load of bristles and they seem to be doing ok at cleaning.

[mpcolson]

Well Papa now that you mention it I think I got "stung" by the worms in my tank last week when I was chasing that killer crab around. After I took all the LR out to corner the crab I replaced everything hastily to avoid killing the feather dusters and other things I wanted to try to keep.

Needless to say I went at that project unprotected and afterward I felt like I had thorns in my fingers of my right index finger and pinky. They felt simular to cactus thorns. I can't see them but they are there. Not as severe as you describe but my tank is 5 weeks old so I guess thats my good fortune. I'll be getting some latex gloves to add to my maintenance kit I think.

It seems most agree that these worms are more a benefit than harmful, I'm glad to hear that at least. I will be more careful when feeding however as I understand that is one way to control them. I don't want to have that Medusa hair boiling up... that's creepy man!

Thanks for all your input!

[CarmieJo]

I think that bristleworms are a beneficial part of the CUC. If you get stuck with the bristles bathe your finger/hand in some vinegar and it will dissolve the bristles. When I had a sixline in my 54 I couldn't keep bristleworms in it. I kept moving them from the nano into the 54 but the sixline just thought I was providing dinner.