Bristle worm help

mattaytayan

mattaytayan

New member
Today morning after having my 5 gallon fluval evo for about 3 weeks now and having an acan, triburnia, and star polyp, i saw a bristleworm and had no clue where it came from. I stocked my tank with dead rock and 1 bag of live sand. Ive put in traps to try and get it out before it splits and i was wondering if these pests could travel with corals. My newest coral was the green star polyp and before that ive never seen it.


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mattaytayan said:
Today morning after having my 5 gallon fluval evo for about 3 weeks now and having an acan, triburnia, and star polyp, i saw a bristleworm and had no clue where it came from. I stocked my tank with dead rock and 1 bag of live sand. Ive put in traps to try and get it out before it splits and i was wondering if these pests could travel with corals. My newest coral was the green star polyp and before that ive never seen it.


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I think they fly in under the cover of darkness...

But more seriously, why get rid of it? It does a wonderful job as part of the CUC and self regulate numbers based on food availability. Just don't go pick it up with your bare hands and everything will be great.
 
Slarti said:
I think they fly in under the cover of darkness...



But more seriously, why get rid of it? It does a wonderful job as part of the CUC and self regulate numbers based on food availability. Just don't go pick it up with your bare hands and everything will be great.
Click to expand...



Nah they look nasty lol, ive already got enought clean up crew and its such a small tank i dont want it to grow and have a 20 inch ugly worm in my tank


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I would keep it myself. Like Slarti said, they are a great addition to your CUC. It will take a very very long time before it's get anywhere near 20".
 
cincyjim said:
I would keep it myself. Like Slarti said, they are a great addition to your CUC. It will take a very very long time before it's get anywhere near 20".
Click to expand...



Ok but do u know if they need 2 to reproduce or 1 can split into many


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Bristleworms can easily come in on corals along with many other "hitchhikers" like brittle starfish, all sorts of pods and various other worms,etc...
They are also very beneficial to have and as long as you maintain your tank properly their population will not get out of control nor will it reach anywhere near 20" long.. Likely not even 4-5" and it will stay skinny..
It will mostly stay hidden and should be left in the tank IMO..
But you can certainly remove it if you want..

To me the best part of this hobby is seeing what grows/shows up in our tanks that we don't intentionally put there.. So I rarely suggest removing anything unless its known to be a harmful creature...
 
mcgyvr said:
Bristleworms can easily come in on corals along with many other "hitchhikers" like brittle starfish, all sorts of pods and various other worms,etc...
They are also very beneficial to have and as long as you maintain your tank properly their population will not get out of control nor will it reach anywhere near 20" long.. Likely not even 4-5" and it will stay skinny..
It will mostly stay hidden and should be left in the tank IMO..
But you can certainly remove it if you want..

To me the best part of this hobby is seeing what grows/shows up in our tanks that we don't intentionally put there.. So I rarely suggest removing anything unless its known to be a harmful creature...
Click to expand...



Nah these things nasty AF [emoji23]i just saw him poke out next to my narcissus snail. Do they eat them, i read online that maybe they will and the snail got out of the sand for the first time and went straight to him, also made a trap out of a pudding cup so hopefully that will work [emoji23]
89e70d579534363905e1eb2e2f63736c.jpg



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b7e6660bedcde60762531c54414d870d.jpg


And there he is literally right now next to the snail, wish i had some long tweezers to yank him out


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mcgyvr said:
Bristleworms can easily come in on corals along with many other "hitchhikers" like brittle starfish, all sorts of pods and various other worms,etc...
They are also very beneficial to have and as long as you maintain your tank properly their population will not get out of control nor will it reach anywhere near 20" long.. Likely not even 4-5" and it will stay skinny..
It will mostly stay hidden and should be left in the tank IMO..
But you can certainly remove it if you want..

To me the best part of this hobby is seeing what grows/shows up in our tanks that we don't intentionally put there.. So I rarely suggest removing anything unless its known to be a harmful creature...
Click to expand...

+1... very well said.
 
It will not eat your living snail... It will help consume the snails poop though..
It will help eat your snail if it dies though..
Nature....
 
mattaytayan said:
Ima buy tweezers tomorrow and rip him out and shoot it with a bb gun to make sure he wont come back


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When you catch it, tape it to the front glass of your tank so any others in the tank can see what you do.. Then shoot it with a bb gun in front of them all..
That will show them who's boss..
 
mcgyvr said:
When you catch it, tape it to the front glass of your tank so any others in the tank can see what you do.. Then shoot it with a bb gun in front of them all..

That will show them who's boss..
Click to expand...



Thats what ill do and ill be sure to post it here lmao [emoji23]


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IMO Bristle Worms get a bad wrap for no obvious reason. They have been accused of killing other tank creatures, when in reality the creature died of natural causes, and the owner found the worm cleaning up the corpse. They are a great addition to the CUC as SLARTI mentioned. If you have one, I would not be surprised if there are others in your tank, and you haven't seen them.

Where they come from, well they are definitely good at hiding. I totally nuked my tank a year ago. Bleached the rock and sand, and started from scratch (outbreak of something nasty that killed of some of my fish... anyone reading who does not quarantine, take heed...). I quarantine everything wet, and dip corals etc.... and I still have Bristle Worms in my tank. But.... I am quite happy to have them.
 
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