Bristle worm living under BTA

[sfarid123]

Hi,

For the past 6 months or so I have seen a small bristle worm, almost 1" long living underneath my BTA and every time I feed my BTA it comes out and starts eating the bta's food. MY BTA 's has become weak and smaller in size compared to few months ago and it takes a long time for it to take food in its mouth.

Is the bristle worm the culprit? And if so, would a arrow crab take care of the problem?
thanks.

 

[mobert]

I used to have giant bristles worms come out and rip food out of the mouths of my anemones. Try chopping the food up into very small pieces. That way the worm only grabs a little piece and leaves the rest.

 

[sfarid123]

I do chop the food into little pieces, and sometimes the bristle will steal the food. My concern is if the worm is eating away my bta when there is no food. I feed my nem every 2-3 days.
thanks

 

[mobert]

If your bta is fed every 2-3 days then it is probably not lack of food. A 1" long bristleworm is pretty harmless. I had them 2 feet long with my anemones. I would suggest checking your water parameters.

 

[sfarid123]

My parameters are : 1.025 salinity
10 alk
0 p04,nh4,no2,no3
Ro/DI water
lighting 4x52 t5-SLR
I do not have a fuge.


The mouth seem to remains open all of the time but no guts showing. Is there anything else I need to check?

 

[mobert]

Other than stability, I don't know what else. Sometimes the animals suffer if there are large swings in salinity, temperature, ph or oxygen but hard to say unless you monitor those conditions. Mouth remaining open is not a good sign. I assume you have enough current that the anemone sways a little to wash away waste. No angels or other predator fish?

Best of luck.

 

[SabrinaJean]

I hate worms so i bought this green stick that catches the bristle worms at night time. It was 5 bucks and works great. In the middle is the food compartment where u close the food in and the worms come out at night time and get stuck inside. Look it up and catch those suckers

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

do you have a pic of the furry little guy?