A bristle worm exterminater

[Atmosphere]

So my reef tank is full of bristle worms every were. I know some people like this but there is just way to many for my liking and im also nervous to stick my hand in the tank there's so many of them. Any one thats been stung by a bristle should know what I mean. So im wondering is there a fish that would go with my tank that would be reef safe as well as my reef inhabitants that would munch on them time to time.

My tank is a 29 gallon jbj. I have to tank breed clowns, pearl jaw fish, lawn mower bleeny. I have frog spawn, pulsing xenia, green star polyps, blue waving hand, mushrooms and green glove polyps. Misc clean up crew....hermits, snails, porcilen crabs ect.

I think my bio load is pushing it with fish now but any suggestions down the line in 2 or 3 months once my bio load balances out. I just added the lawn mower 4 weeks ago.

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[Guacamole]

Arrow crab, although i can not guarantee that they are fully reef safe. I have seen one take a bristle worm, rip it in half and alternate eating from the right and left claw like it was double fisting ice cream cones. Pretty bad ***

 

[phoenixstar89]

orchid dottyback, AKA pseudochromis fridmani, are usually pretty good bristleworm eaters.

 

[justjosh012]

six line wrasse, as long as the worms arent too big yet.

 

[SushiGirl]

High bioload & overfeeding result in overpopulation. Most fish only eat the very small ones & an arrow crab will work but is going to get large & aggressive in a 29 pretty quickly.

 

[Rapide]

I collected some Palaemon elegans shrimps from the Baltic sea a couplw of weeks ago. I acclimated them and now I have a dozen of them in my reef. I have seen on several occations that they eat bristle worms!
The shrimps were actually ment for food, but they seem to have survived the jaws of my trigger and lionfish... Eventually they will become pray, but I'll enjoy their deworming untill it's trigger dinnertime
I might have even seen one pick on a aiptasia anemone, but I'm not a 100% sure. And the shrimps reef safetiness is still under observation too

 

[snorvich]

Arrow crab, although i can not guarantee that they are fully reef safe. I have seen one take a bristle worm, rip it in half and alternate eating from the right and left claw like it was double fisting ice cream cones. Pretty bad ***

Arrow crabs do eat bristle worms. They will also take fish.

 

[SushiGirl]

Rapide, did you post about those before? Sounds familiar. Maybe those should be commonly sold.

 

[Rapide]

Yes I think I have said something about them, can't really remember...
If I remember right, I think I saw some article that they have spread to the US recently.

And I found it!
http://weblogs.nal.usda.gov/invasivespecies/archives/2010/08/massachusetts_s.shtml

This shrimp was first found in 2002 here, and since then it has been found in large numbers along our costal line and archipelago.
It's not 100% reef safe to smaller invertebrates, but doesn't bother corals or fish.
Great source of food for my trigger and lionfish!! + they keep the tanks really clean from uneaten food!
Planning to add a lot of these in my sump! And they are pretty
http://www.nobanis.org/images/PHOTO BANK/Palaemon elegans_haagen12.jpg