Bristle worm

[sailoracu2]

Are bristle worms good or bad for a tank? I found one this morning, It’s brown and it’s not a fire worm.

 

[BrunstuckyJoe]

Depends on who you talk to....

 

[markviiisvt4]

yeah i have them in my tank and i let them be. Clean up crew as far as I'm concerned

 

[ReefWidowed]

It depends on what kinds of fish/corals you have. When my bristle worms get really large I pull them...I've found they bother my zoas, and i have a few fish that are dumb enough to try and fight them for food and end up getting spiked. I lost a dottyback little by little as it was too stupid to learn its lesson.

Also, my tank is moving to be a dedicated seahorse tank. I will be trying to completely eradicate them because there are horror stories of horses mistaking smaller ones for food and accidentally snicking them up (a few have even lost horses this way).....so away they go....

But in a normal mixed reef tank, the biggest risk is usually getting yourself spiked if you stick your hand into your tank without gloves....I use an old hotel key to scrape them out like you would a bee sting

 

[Tonycip]

what fish eat them ? wrasses

 

[ReefWidowed]

wrasses, dottybacks....a few others I think....my idiot clowns fight them for pellet or mysis

 

[sailoracu2]

I guess grabbing it between my fingers was bad and letting it crawl on my hand not good ether. (No spikes in fingers or hand) thanks for the help.

 

[Matt1351]

my six line wrasse takes care of mine

 

[the budman]

if i move something and see some i take them out but normally i just let them be

 

[Eggs]

I remember reading somewhere about reducing fish feeding to get rid of them, if you have too many. I believe some are helpfull.
I forgot about that and because of some nitrates, I started to cut back my feeding. I have started to notice less bristle worms. Maybe by coindence, I don't know?

I generally remove them if I can, because I know there are more.

 

[CeasarIM]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14232948#post14232948 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tonycip
what fish eat them ? wrasses

I have this little 3inch goatfish that flips little rocks just to eat them .Its kinda cool.I have'nt seen any for a while .Now I want to get rid of it because its starting to try to eat my tiny blue legged hermits.

 

[dogpound]

let me know about the goat fish i need it

 

[DEERE G]

I have seen my 6-line wrasse tear into one before...although I have seen my 6-line go after about everything in my tank that moves.

 

[PirateFish52]

My buddy just got stung by a bristleworm in his tank two weeks ago, and his finger swelled up big time. Use caution around them.

 

[puffster]

I just pull out the bigger ones when I see them when I clean.