Bristle Worms.. How bad are they?

[Bmgrocks]

29 becoming a reef, but every once in a while when the lights turn out, i see, what i think are bristle worms, worms with bristles on both sides...Anyways i hear alot of people getting six lines to rid their tank of them

Are bristle worms bad,
should i remove them
whats the best way of removing them....

 

[kau_cinta_ku]

they are great cleaners for your sand and such. i wouldn't remove them. however some ppl remove them when they get very big. but leave the smaller ones

 

[DeadManWalking]

they are good sccavengers. the times when they are bad is when 1 when theres tons of them everywere.
2 when they get huge
but other wise they are good.

 

[bertoni]

Most of them are good to have. Some species are predatory. I wouldn't worry.

 

[returnofsid]

A better question would be "how good are they?" and the answer would be VERY good. They're great detritus eaters. They do a great job of helping to keep your tank clean and healthy. Of the hundreds of species of "bristleworms," only a couple species are dangerous for your tank and they're pretty rare in home aquariums.

 

[Sk8r]

They're possibly essential for coral growth: some researchers say they're responsible for breaking down nutrients into useable size for corals to take in.

 

[nugg91]

i've never had a problem with any of them...they can just be a little creepy. Especially when they start getting bigger!

 

[onecrzyboi4u]

wonder if there is any anaconda bristles in the ocean? lmfao

 

[nugg91]

not sure but i found a post when i first got on RC by a biology teacher that found one that was several feet long! he had pics and everything...they dissected it as a school project.

 

[returnofsid]

If I ever find anything that ugly and that big crawling out from under any of my live rock, I'm going back to strictly freshwater!!! lol

 

[six.line]

Bristleworms for the most part aren't bad. If they're your typical orangeish/pinkish color with a darker elongated spot, then you're ok. 90% of the bristleworms out there are these guys.

If they get too big, feed less. They eat up wasted stuff: dead things (snails), excess food, and detritus. If they get huge, it's usually because of too much feeding on our parts.

 

[returnofsid]

Also, if your population gets out of control, it's not all that hard to remove a lot of them easily. Take a nylon mesh bag with a string attached to it....pop a piece of prawn into it and drop it in your tank at night. They'll "smell" dinner and come crawling. In the morning, pull the bag out and you'll have a bag with a bunch of nasties in it. DON'T touch them. There's a reason they're nicknamed "fireworms!!"

 

[jlt23]

What do you consider big? I have seen one in my tank where the part that is out of the rock is 3 inches. Is that big?

 

[Sk8r]

I have 4 10"ers in my tank, plus about a cupful of smaller ones---52g tank. The 10"ers have names, "Fred," and "Barney", "Sam," and "Frank." They're actually better-behaved than the little ones. I've been told their species is oenone, and so far they're a real benefit.
When I had a big fat mega-snail jam under a structural rock and die where I'd have to disassemble my reef to get him out, the big four cooperated with hermits and the little ones to have that snail cleaned out by morning, no nitrate rise at all.
Believe me, if you've ever smelled dead snail, you can appreciate how good that was to have gone.

 

[returnofsid]

Nah, 3" isn't big. I've got lots of them that are probably over 6". Wait until you find one that's a foot or larger. That might just make me go back to strictly freshwater!!! lol