Are brisstleworms good or bad?

[firefish2020]

<b>I duno you tell me...</b>

Someone brought in a bunch of coral to the shop today and I was inspecting one rock of mushrooms when I noticed a large bristle worm, I dropped the rock but it was already to late. I did'nt feel a thing...at first. So I did what came natural, I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures.

It looks like white fur sticking to my fingers but it's not. What it is is about a thousand semi-translucent calcium carbonate structures embedded deep into my skin. Yeh it's kind of like a cactus but only if the cactus spikes were made of glass.

We tried using sticky tape to pull out the bristles but it was not efficient enough and hurt like a banana shake.

For future reference if you are stupid or unfortunate enough to find yourself in this type of prickly situation LOL, you can use a wax hair removal kit or go for the Biore strips. They pulled out just about all of the stickers.

Hope everyone learns something from this stupid mistake, be careful in those tanks.

 

[Salty Bginners]

OMG RON!!! I got stung by one once. Hurt like hell. i only got one barb though. LOL i cant resist. Heres your sign

 

[WVfishguy]

That's a FIREWORM, a nasty kind of bristleworm. Bristleworms are usually harmless annelids (earthworms are in the same order).
I think most long-term dealers eventually get "burned" by fireworms. The folks at Berts can relate some firsthand experiences.
I've yet to see a fireworm. Hope I never do.
TR

 

[phljess]

I have heard you can use vinegar to disolve the bristles but I have never gotten stuck bad enough to try it.

 

[grendl]

If its Calcium Carbonate, vinegar should eat it right up.

 

[firefish2020]

yeh really hot water seemed to help as well. No long term effects though.

 

[Sk8r]

Bristleworm: no visual distinction from fireworm except size. Essential to healthy tank.

Nasty sting, however. Hot water, maybe even hot vinegar: heat accelerates chemical process.

 

[firefish2020]

Essential to healthy tank.

Im not sure everyone would agree with this, I know I don't. Don't get me wrong I used to think they were important to my systems, and they were for a while. But then my system found a new balance that did not require the creatures at all. Now I have no bristleworms in my BB 125 display or my SB 120 display and those systems are pretty healthy. They are essential only in the fact that they fill in a gap in the ecosystem. If you fill in that gap with another animal or use another creature to establish control over the worms you find another more acceptable balance.

In my experience bristleworms seem to show up in older tanks that tend to get neglected after a while, some of these tanks do indeed seem quite healthy as the worms are eating away a lot of the detritus that is accumulating providing a seemingly never ending feast for them. However add say a dottyback or bannded shrimp to such a seemingly well balanced system and it could cause a temporary crash as the new creatures rid the system of the worms and the benefits that they are creating. Basically they are essential only to some tanks not every tank. After a tank reaches balance without them they are never needed again IMO unless the tank starts to fall into ruin, then they can help revive it.

It's kind of like when the Kent representative told me. "You can't keep a reef tank without Strontium and Molybdenum additives." You can if you do your water changes and your system gets used to the amount the salts provided by those changes, he did'nt like that answer LOL. But basically every tank is different in it's own way and no two tanks will ever find an identical balance IMO.

 

[Salty Bginners]

OOOH GOT TOLD!!

Ron did it hurt?
(OOOH I CAN SMELL THE SARCASAM ON THAT 1!!!)

 

[mcox33]

Let me tell ya guys, I was there when Ron got the bristles. Yeah I think they hurt. I could not even stick the tape to his fingers enough to get them to stick to it. (wet fingers do not stick to tape very well) Anyway he flinched everytime the tape touched the bristles.


Ron, I am glad you got the bristles out. Sorry I could not stay and help longer.

And how is the Tang doing? I still want him.

 

[firefish2020]

That tang is great, he eats out of your hand. Get a 125 and he's yours LOL. Anyway, yeh it hurt a bit but mostly just the removal part LOL.

 

[Salty Bginners]

Tell me ron. On a scale of one to ten (with one being the little smiley face and 10 being the face that looks like hes being skined alive then dipped in salt water) what would you rate the pain as? Its ok you can tell Dr. Bginners. LOL

 

[phljess]

A couple small bristles. Suck it up, it comes with the territory of being a notorious coral and livestock wrangler.

 

[firefish2020]

I think your getting it wrong Bginnners. It hurt but was nothing like having shards of glass in my skin which I have had many times while knapping arrowheads. It only hurt when I pushed them into my skin which I had to do to get the tape and biore to pull them out like wax hair removal. However unlike near microscopic glass shards which have to be removed by cutting away your skin, it was a cakewalk