bristle worms

[laxing22]

OK, I have an issue with bristle worms - hundreds of them. I know there are some beneficial reasons to keep them around, but they are in every part of my tank and just plane ugly. That and they hurt like heck when I am moving something in the tank as there are so many, it is hard not to get hit by one. Any how, should I get rid of them? I really don't want to use an ugly trap and I know it won't get them all and they will just come back. I was thinking about an arrow crab or a CB shrimp. Any thoughts?

 

[RyanM]

Coral banded shimp. Natural predation is the best way to keep a pest under control. Find something that is less a pest thats eats them. They will go into hiding with a predator in the tank so youll still likely have them to help with the clean up of waste but they will be alot less visable.

 

[fatrip]

i agree with ryan, or you could always just pic them out with tweesers.

 

[Blugobi]

I know you did not want an "Ugly" trap......but if you want to try a quick easy trap, that is small but effective. Take an empty 20oz soda bottle (pick your favorite color ), cut the top off with about an 1.5 inch of bottle attached, reverse it and re-insert it back in the bottle. Glue in place with some super glue. Now you have a natural funnel trap, add something for weight to keep it from floating around and bait it with something like frozen shrimp, it will need to sit for a bout 2 days and one morning you will have a ton of them in the bottle, just dispose of them. This will help you get ahead of the problem and then use a natural predator, like Coral banded, Arrow or even a six line wrasse........to control the rest.

Geo

 

[03Mach]

When they grow in such huge numbers isn't that a sign of some type of nutrient issue?

 

[laxing22]

Well, this is very possible - this was a 20 gal at work and I moved it home to a 30 a couple of weeks ago. Problem is that it was not well taken care of at work and everyone loved to watch the fishies eat. I only kept about 8 gals of water from the old tank, but it was still pretty bad

 

[03Mach]

If I recall correctly, fixing the nutrient problem will limit the amount of bristles that can survive in the tank. So if you get whatever the problem might be under control, theoretically the worms would level themselves out right?