Bristle Worm Hardiness

[MTH]

I was totally surprised today. I had a bag of Chaeto that has been sitting for about 3 months in a zip lock bag on a table. I decided today to stick it in my tank in a make shift fuge. Well about an hour ago I check on it and find a bristle worm crawling on the inside of the fuge. I was shocked to think that anything could have lived for that long with no filtration, water flow, nothing, just sitting in a bag for the past 3 months. Amazing. Just goes to show, be careful when handling anything. Even if you think its been cured, scrubbed clean, etc something like this could pop up and get you.

 

[Bobby S.]

Yep, I thought they had to be in the water to live. Don't tell my wife, my tank will be gone the next day. When I had freshwater fish, I had a crab that lived in the tank with piranhas, he climbed out and hid in my wife's shoe. Just imagine how happy she was.

 

[LeslieH]

Basically you provided a closed system environment equivalent to ones sold commercially that consist of a sealed glass globe with water, algae, & one shrimp. The animal's wastes feed the algae while it feeds on the micro-epiphytes, the algae cleans the water & provides oyxgen.