Mini brittles vs. Bristle Worms

[Mitch]

I've had 2 seahorses in my 60 gal since Feb. and the tank is beginning to mature a bit. I also recently added a Boston Bean.

My LR is full of mini brittles and bristleworms, both of which have growing populations - both in numbers and the size of individuals.
I feed live brine 1x/day and frozen mysis 1x/day. When I feed the mysis, it is very targeted, with most of it being placed into a shell/feeding trough. There are snails and hermits to cleanup the gravel, but the stars and bristles rule the LR.
I've trapped quite a few bristles, but it has occurred to me that perhaps that isn't a good idea. It is my guess that as I remove the bristles, the star population will multiply, and perhaps that isn't a good thing. It seems that the reason we remove the bristles is because they are so darn creepy and ugly (while the stars look cool), but of course scientifically speaking, that is a terrible reason.
Can too many stars be a problem? Should I continue removing the bristles?
Thanks.

[SaltyDawg]

It sounds to me like you are overfeeding. Dont let them creep you out. They are just cleaning house. If anything....they are helping you out.

[rayme07]

You can leave them in there if you want both the birstleworms and the stars. The populations of both will balance out soon and probably explode again its just a part of nature. I have had the same thing happen with bristleworms and they went and came then came back again and have slowly went back down. lol Hope this helps

[Phurst]

Both the stars and worms are detritivores, and, generally speaking, helpful to have around. Populations of both will fluctuate with the availability of food. I understand keeping ponies can be a messy business, so I would expect for there to be good numbers of both. Unless there is some rule of thumb about bristleworms with sea horses, I'd leave them both to do their jobs.

[CarmieJo]

I too think that they are both beneficial to have.

[Mitch]

Thanks for all the replies.
The only problem I've heard of w/ponies and bristles is that if the ponies nip at the bristles, they can be injured. The bristles crawl into the ponies' dish during feeding (and get chased out) and I've never seen the ponies show any interest in them.

[Rostr02]

Can't imagine what bristle worm spines in the mouth would feel like. The fingers are bad enough.