100 worms - bristle or fire?

[PermaNoob]

I must have about 100 worms in my 120. Spotted the first about 2 months ago and now the thing must be 4-5" long and also now I have them just about everywhere. There must be like a hundred of them.

Are these fireworms or bristle worms?

Since I have too many to trap, will anything eat them? While I've had my tank for about a year, the only coral I have are GSP, an acan colony and a few rock nems that I can't get rid of. I have 7 fish, clown, fridmani dottyback, royal gamma, yellow tang, purple tang, cardinal and a hellfricki firefish.

Thanks.

 

[monopolybag]

Need a pic. Sixline wrasses sometimes do the trick, but I wouldn't due to your number of fish and sometimes they can bully other fish.

Coral Banded Shrimp. Try adding one of medium size. Also physically remove any with gloves or tweezers when you see them.

 

[monopolybag]

There are many other fish that do too but I would not add mreo fish.

 

[Kentsreef]

maybe something like this would help ?

Drill a 1/8- to 1/4-inch hole in one of the PVC caps. Place it on one end of your PVC pipe. Make sure it is on tight.

2
Squid is excellent fireworm bait.Place a few brine shrimp or a few pieces of squid at the other end of the pipe, and cap the end with the other PVC cap. Again, make sure the cap is on tight.

3Drop the pipe into your aquarium, let it sit overnight and check it in the morning. The fireworm should enter the pipe to retrieve the food and will still be inside.

4Repeat steps 1 through 3 if you don't trap the fireworm on the first night.
.

 

[SushiGirl]

I had 100 in a 10 gallon that had a damsel and a very large hermit in it LOL. I wouldn't worry about 100 in a 120! However, they will die back if they're not getting enough food, so maybe cut down on your feeding if you're overfeeding the fish.

You could also put food in a piece of pantyhose and when they get wrapped up in it yank it out.

 

[PermaNoob]

Thanks. Maybe I'll try the coral banded shrimp. I just don't think trapping them will be very productive due to the number of them.

 

[Sk8r]

Don't get rid of them. They're valuable cleanup crew. Their population will adjust over time. They'll save your tank if you keep a healthy population. They're just stirring about because they're hungry. They can't hurt any of your fish or critters: they only eat slime off dead things, and clean the holes in the rockwork. they appreciate a little sinking pellet food. Bad, bad mistake to remove them.

 

[disciple]

+1 Sk8r
Just because its a worm doesn't make it a bad guy.
Here is a good sit to checkout
www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchworms.html

hitchworms.htmlwww.chucksaddiction.com/hitchworms.html

 

[disciple]

Boy my phone messed that up.

 

[PermaNoob]

Don't get rid of them. They're valuable cleanup crew. Their population will adjust over time. They'll save your tank if you keep a healthy population. They're just stirring about because they're hungry. They can't hurt any of your fish or critters: they only eat slime off dead things, and clean the holes in the rockwork. they appreciate a little sinking pellet food. Bad, bad mistake to remove them.

My main concern is I believe they killed my only clam (found a bunch of them inside it one day and it was totally gone except for the shell by next morning) and these things are getting bigger every day. The biggest one is about 5". That is scarey big.

If you're confident they're good and won't harm anything (including growing big enough to climb out and eat my child lol) then I'll leave them in there. thanks.

 

[SushiGirl]

Likely your clam died & they cleaned it up. I always pulled out the 5+ inchers, but I only had a 38 gallon tank LOL.

 

[Frogmanx82]

To me they perform a similar function to nassarius snails. They help keep the tank clean. I'm sure I have hundreds. I thought about arrow crabs, coral banded, some of the wrasses or dottybacks, but all those came with issues that could be more problematic than the worms, which are not problematic at all except for when my wife spots one and gets a little freaked out. Fortunately they don't spend a lot of time in the light.

 

[Angel*Fish]

Like the others said, they are very beneficial. What you want to avoid is buying fish or crabs that will kill them off, in my opinion.

 

[ChicagoReefer88]

I wish i had more of them, +1 on beneficial. I know what you mean the big ones are nasty looking but def not harmful. Get a mandarin goby im sure he will make a living out of those things and he is dam pretty too

 

[Frogmanx82]

I didn't know mandarins ate bristleworms. Are you sure about that? If true than my mandarin is set.

 

[Frogmanx82]

"Lucky for you Mandarin fish have not been known to eat Bristleworms"

That from wetwebmedia.

 

[Angel*Fish]

If you want to see a fish eat bristleworms, get a huma huma trigger. It's quite spectacular. They can spit the worm out in a straight line and then suck it back up. And no, don't really get a huma huma

 

[Alace]

in my last tank (240 in wall and total 500 gal) i had millions maybe billions..lol and when i had a clam die or anything else they would say the tank by cleaning it all up before the dead could harm my tank.. so keep the worms... good for your tank...

 

[Alace]

0h and 5inchers are nothing... in my sump when i took it all down there was one in there that scared the hell out of me, he was about 12 inches.. made my husband remove him and get rid of him..

 

[Blown76mav]

Bristleworms are nothing, try having a elucid worm in your tank:eek1::eek1:

Pulled one out a year ago almost 24" long.....