Bristle Worms Stealing from BTA

[DeadlyMuffin]

I've recently noticed bristle worms taking food from my BTAs. I'm not sure if they're stinging the anemones or not, but the tentacles on the area the worms are coming from are deflated.

Not only is the anemone not getting the food, but it looks pretty gross. What can I do?

 

[hangles]

I would get those worms out of the tank. if they are that big get rid of them.

 

[kindafun]

Truly, which do you like more, the worms or the BTA. Dumb question but that's how I look at it. I had bristle worms too but whenever I get a chance I get them out of there. They give me the creeps anyway and I don't want to touch them!

 

[DeadlyMuffin]

Getting rid of them is a whole lot easier said than done. They're all over, and the rock is so porous I can never catch them when they're not out in the open.

Even if I do get ahold of one with tweezers when it's on the rock, it holds on tight enough that I just rip it in two.

 

[kindafun]

True that. I've been lucky a few times and found them out on the sand. They like to be under rocks too so when I've had to re-aquascape I have found and removed them. It's probably terribly difficult or impossible to hunt and remove them all.

Though, I think I've read about a bristle worm trap somewhere here.

 

[thefireking]

I had a killer worm, and I ended up removing all coral from the rock & running it under boiling water to kill the sucker. Then I hand drilled a 3/8" hole on the underside of the rock to get to the area it was living in.

The traps never caught anything but snails & crabs...

 

[DeadlyMuffin]

I have little bristle worms in all my rocks and in my sand. There really is no way I can get rid of them.

 

[kindafun]

Fireking, that sounds pretty drastic! I guess you do what you have to do.