Are Bristle Worms Bad?

[Ltlduc]

Just like it says. are they bad? I am moving a bunch of LR from my old tank to my new tank. when I put it in my new tank to cycle, A bunch of worms came out. Is this bad?

 

[PatrickJ]

if you are scared of them, yes they are bad. Some people are wuss about them, "OHH THEY ARE SOO GROSS LOOKING, THEY REALLY CREEP ME OUT! I DONT WANT WORMS IN MY TANK!"

I say, they eat alot of the food that your fish dont eat, they eat the poo from fish, and they keep your tank pretty clean. Call me crazy, but I dont need un eaten food sitting in the bottom of my tank and I dont need fish poo in there as well.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

no bristle worms are not bad. They are very good and part of the beneficial cleanup crew that comes with live rock. And to be honest, you'd never be able to kill them all anyway....unless maybe you let everything dry out in the sun...but that'd be a bad idea.

 

[giantxtc]

Be very careful when moving the rock if you have alot of them!Thier little bristles are like cactus when they get in your fingers.I made the mistake of rakeing out the rubble in my sump once,with my bare hands.It felt like glass all over my hands.

 

[A.G]

Bristleworms are very good cleanres and will eat any uneaten food or detiuts. If you have lots of them.......a pair of coral banded shrimp will keep the numbers down.HTH

 

[reeferman06]

Put it like this; if you ever have a huge snail die in your tank, and you cant get to it b/c its behind the rocks, the bristleworms will take care of it for you in know time

 

[mthedude]

there's a certain stigma w/them because someone came out a long time ago w/a picture of a bristleworm crawling over a sun coral and they assumed it was eating it, which it wasn't and they have had mixed reviews ever since. None of them in my tank have ever harmed a coral and do a nice job of eating dead and dieing things in the tank very quickly.

 

[Ltlduc]

Thanks for all of the replies. I have some star polups that haven't been doing so well. When I moved their rock, A bunch of worms crawled out from under the coral. I was wondering if that is the reason the coral is not doing so well.

 

[vanmo92]

They are not bad. They are just another aspect of the clean up crew.