Bristleworm fear, adding new live rock...?

[dc]

I paid for my bristleworms. :lol:

 

[Planet Q]

i was always told brissleworms will kill clams that is the only reason i dont want them in my tank , i probly suck out ten everytime i move stuff on my sand bed. when i feed my tank a couple come out of the rocks looking 4 food

 

[Khemul]

I paid for my bristleworms. :lol:

:lolspin: Me too.

Multi LFS's looking for chaeto to get worms and pods. A few of them staring at me in shock then saying "You WANT bristleworms?". :facepalm:



And wow. Holy nuclear overkill. Pretty sure the rock was sterilized by the first couple steps. The copper was just ensuring that nothing would ever inhabit it for a very long time.

 

[atreis]

I would go as far as to recommend DELIBRATELY INTRODUCING BRISTLEWORMS into FO, FOWLR and reef systems.

And I do

Misguided info/beliefs are the real culprit here.

They get a bad rap because people see them eating something, and think they killed it. No. It died for some other reason and they're doing cleanup.

 

[Planet Q]

sorry RC didnt mean to use that language on here

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

sorry RC didnt mean to use that language on here

we will forgive you only if you remember one important thing:
bristleworms common to the reefkeeping hobby DO NOT kill healthy clams

Now.. there ARE a few errant Polychaetes (worms) that are highly predatory... but these are RARELY encountered in the reefkeeping hobby.

 

[567234ta]

I have lot and lots of bristle worms, they don't do anything bad as far as i can tell, I just never grab a rock without gloves on, learned that the hard way.:mad2:

 

[Planet Q]

thanks for clearing up my misconception of bristle worms Gary, i have made a habit of keeping the sand bed around the clam free of bristle worms should i stop doing this then??
are bristle worms harmful to seahorses

 

[Bruno3047]

Brittany. I agree with you that bristleworms are a PITA and I'm 99.99% sure that they ate the coronas on a few beautiful Aquacultured Blastos that I bought from LiveAquaria and brought them to the brink of death. But it's also true that they are good detrivores. I think the problem arises when the BW population becomes overwhelming, especially if there is no natural predator in the tank, they have insufficient food to eat, so they start munching on corals. What I do is, every 6 months or so, I suck all of the sand out of my tank that is not under my rocks, and rinse it in fresh tap water. The Bristleworms in the sand die almost instantly in the fresh tap water. This keeps the population under control. I also added a mated pair of Gold Coral Banded Shrimp to the tank and I think I’ve attained a good balance now with my BW population. Good luck with your BW problem.

 

[567234ta]

Brittany. I agree with you that bristleworms are a PITA and I'm 99.99% sure that they ate the coronas on a few beautiful Aquacultured Blastos that I bought from LiveAquaria and brought them to the brink of death. But it's also true that they are good detrivores. I think the problem arises when the BW population becomes overwhelming, especially if there is no natural predator in the tank, they have insufficient food to eat, so they start munching on corals. What I do is, every 6 months or so, I suck all of the sand out of my tank that is not under my rocks, and rinse it in fresh tap water. The Bristleworms in the sand die almost instantly in the fresh tap water. This keeps the population under control. I also added a mated pair of Gold Coral Banded Shrimp to the tank and I think I've attained a good balance now with my BW population. Good luck with your BW problem.

rinsing the sand in tap water doesn't really sound like a great idea for a coral tank. maybe just make a trap for them and get them out after dark.

 

[Fryman]

I have bristle worms, nems & clams. No problems at all.

The bristle worm population will go up if you overfeed and/or have a lot for them to eat, but IME bristle worms will not eat anything living. They will clean up anything that dies in record time, thus people find them on their dead livestock & blame the worms. They used to have a bad rap, but I thought most reefers now had realized the error.

 

[Patrick Cox]

Bristle worms are good detritivores... No need to kill them. Keep them!

I had the same issue as the OP so my view is that Bristleworms are bad. I had only one that hitchhiked on a piece of LR and it killed my tube anemone. I am now starting a new tank and I am starting with only Dry Rock so I should be safe this time.

Pat

 

[MrClam]

So I see conflicting advice being given here, albeit that most people seem to say that bristleworms are harmless and actually even beneficial.

Curious does anyone know of actual scientific literature to support these claims? Or is everything just anecdotal evidence.

I ask because I ordered bristleworms for my reef haha.

 

[discocarp]

I would go as far as to recommend DELIBRATELY INTRODUCING BRISTLEWORMS into FO, FOWLR and reef systems.

Count me in for this one. My bristleworms originally came from an inland aquatics detrivore kit I added to my dry rock years ago. They're still going strong. Their only drawback IMO is when you pick up a rock with bare hands and get the bristles. Even that isn't THAT bad.

 

[Subw00er]

Ya I also agree that bristle worms are an important part of a cuc. They are annoying because they can stick you with bristles when moving rocks or frag plugs, but a good tip is that you can soak your hand in a little bit of vinegar for 20-30 minuties and it dissolves the bristles!!

I have a lot of them in my tank and I just pull them when their body is like 1/4" thick and they're like 5" long because I just have a little nano. Something about bristle worms being that big creeps me out.

But think about it, their slender bodies can get to places that snails and shrimp cant and they also aerate the sandbed. AFAIK, they do not eat corals, and if they did, its probably because they're starving.

 

[jgraz]

I have been trying to get people to send them to me. I cant find them anywhere. I'll take whatever i can get

 

[567234ta]

So I see conflicting advice being given here, albeit that most people seem to say that bristleworms are harmless and actually even beneficial.

Curious does anyone know of actual scientific literature to support these claims? Or is everything just anecdotal evidence.

I ask because I ordered bristleworms for my reef haha.

this, there are a few different types of course, but typically they are a very good thing for live rock cleaning.
In a fishless tank for corals they wouldn't be as needed.

I have bristle worms, nems & clams. No problems at all.

The bristle worm population will go up if you overfeed and/or have a lot for them to eat, but IME bristle worms will not eat anything living. They will clean up anything that dies in record time, thus people find them on their dead livestock & blame the worms. They used to have a bad rap, but I thought most reefers now had realized the error.

 

[Subw00er]

Ya I also agree that bristle worms are an important part of a cuc. They are annoying because they can stick you with bristles when moving rocks or frag plugs, but a good tip is that you can soak your hand in a little bit of vinegar for 20-30 minuties and it dissolves the bristles!!

I have a lot of them in my tank and I just pull them when their body is like 1/4" thick and they're like 5" long because I just have a little nano. Something about bristle worms being that big creeps me out.

But think about it, their slender bodies can get to places that snails and shrimp cant and they also aerate the sandbed. AFAIK, they do not eat corals, and if they did, its probably because they're starving.

 

[brittanysmith18]

I'm only adding dry base rock to my reef tank. No worms for me. The only way I know of getting them is as hitchhikers. I know they can grow quite large and eat small fish if you're not careful, so monitor the sizes of the worms. I had some that were around 6 inches long. The were inside the holes of some live rock that I bought and I didn't notice them until MONTHS later. I was horrified by them.

 

[IdahoGuy]

They most certainly don't eat fish.. Not live ones. They don't have the means to do so even if they wanted to, their mouths aren't built to kill anything living.