Bristle Worm

Brittle

New member
I have a Bristle Worm that came in on a live rock about 5 months ago. I researched it and found it to be good for the tank as long as you don't touch it. I never normaly see it being nocturnal. Last night it came out as soon as the lights went out. The worm got HUGE. It was about 5 to 6 inches long. Should I begin to worry about this? How big do they get? Will they hurt anything?
 
From what I have seen some people get freaked out by them and take them out. I think they get a bad rep because people see them eating a dead fish and assume they killed it, but from an ecological standpoint they are detrivores so they scavenge for dead things.

My opinion is that they are beneficial scavengers because they clear the small holes in your LR and eat leftover food and detritus.
 
I have some big ones in my tank and they don't hurt anything. As the tank matures, some are gonna grow. Unless you see them bothering anything, don't worry.
 
Okay thanks. Ill leave it. Do they ever over multiply where i would need to worry about keeping there population down?
 
I have probably several hundred in my 62 gal....my six line wrasse helps keep them in check so I never worry about too many,besides their good to have like the others said they help keep things clean :D
 
They could, but as a scavenger their population depends on food supply and predation. Even with no predation you can easily manage the population by limiting the food supply (aka if you have thousands of worms your problem is overfeeding, not the worms themselves). HTH
 
a foot long is no problem. Even two feet wouldn't be. They can't bite, only gently suck, usually eat slime and decay, can actually heal a coral by sucking off the rot and leaving only healthy tissue, and otherwise are really great cleaners. Just wear exam gloves when working in the rock and you and he will have a happy co-existence. It hurts him to bristle somebody: he has to grow new spines for the one that were ripped out. So he doesn't want to sting you, either.
 
Up grading my aquarium

Up grading my aquarium

I am going from a 20 gallon to forty. My 40 is set up everything is new except one pump which I had running in my 20 gallon to collect good bacteria. After water conditions are stable temp and salt. I wan't to add every thing from my twenty gallon (It established and running for the past year) Can I do that all at once? Will there be enough good bacteria on the live rocks, coral, and old gravel to prevent the new aquarium from going through the nitrate cycle? Or do I have to wait?
 
No, not likely. There's bound to be a mini-cycle, maybe 5 days, then an ammonia spike, for which your inverts and fish shouldn't be in there. Your worms and such will ride it out, but I'd take all fish, crabs and snails over to the quarantine tank with plans for at least a two week stay.
 
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