Having been unable to trap my huge bristle worms that had stole food from my RBTA out of her mouth and caused her so much damage that she died. I am on a mission to distroy them. I have taken the rock out and am doing a fresh water dip. I have found several small ones dead and one huge one that was sticking out of the rock but O broke it off trying to get it out. My question is how long of a fresh water soak do I need to be sure they are all dead??? Thanks in advance.
bristle worms
- Thread starter redvicki
- Start date
Felix T Cat
Member
No clue if it works or not but I saw a post here the otther day about a Peppermint shrimp eating bristles..... I added one to my nano and I'm waiting to see if it makes any different.
Send them to me. Bristleworms are beneficial to reef systems. I wouldn't remove them at all. I have not had to deal with what you describe though, so I guess you have a good reason to go after them. I would just deal with the big ones.
There can be hundreds in a tank. They tend to change in numbers as the food supply dictates.
Well I guess I'll have some dead rotting bristle worms in my rock. I saw a large one grab the silver side that was in the RBTA's mouth and pull the silver side and the RBTA's mouth up and try to pull it all into the rock. The RBTA's mouth turned out and it finally died from the ordeal.
90greefman
New member
I have a wrasse that seems to keep them under control. I still have them, but they never get to large before Gooey(my wrasse) gets em. I think they are beneficial to a tank though so I don't mind them.
It's the big ones like that one that are a problem, but you can trap them out.
Putting seafood in a nylon stocking is a trick that you hear about, or you can put the seafood under some fliter floss in a glass jar -- the bristle will go into the glass jar for the seafood, and hide in the fllter floss 'cause it thinks its safe there -- then you can just pull the whole thing out.
The way I trapped my mean bristle is that I put food in a turkey baster and watched the bristle go into the turkey baster for it, then pulled out the turkey baster and I'm done.
When you do this stuff use a red light so you don't scare the bristle -- you can get red LED lights from REI or another camping store.
Putting seafood in a nylon stocking is a trick that you hear about, or you can put the seafood under some fliter floss in a glass jar -- the bristle will go into the glass jar for the seafood, and hide in the fllter floss 'cause it thinks its safe there -- then you can just pull the whole thing out.
The way I trapped my mean bristle is that I put food in a turkey baster and watched the bristle go into the turkey baster for it, then pulled out the turkey baster and I'm done.
When you do this stuff use a red light so you don't scare the bristle -- you can get red LED lights from REI or another camping store.
chaderic26
New member
Arrow crab or a coral banded shrimp.
i tried to trap it, made my own trap since the one I bought at the LFS was not big enough for the worm to get it's whole body into. It stole my bait from my home made trap so I then used bigger bait. I enjoyed watching it try to pull a large silver side out of a small hole. I may try the jar with filter floss next time. My shrimps did nothing to help me. I did get a piece of it which was about a quarter inch wide and I have seen it out about 10 inches with it's body still in the rock. I'm telling you it was huge. Now that I've done the freash water soak i can get another RBTA, right???
A six-line wrasse will also keep the bristle worm population under control. Never saw one when I had a six-line, but I will never own another six-line. Mine would pick new fish to death, literally. It would use it's nose like a torpedo and just ram into any new fish that I put in the tank. While they are beautiful and helpful, maybe mine was just a brat, but it ruined me.
afboundguy
recovering acan'aholic
Have you tried a trap? If you've never seen the aclimate it's a great tool... The inventor is from my local reef club and it's being sold on marinedepot...
