Bristleworm Invasion

BlueDolphin123

BlueDolphin123

New member
Hello, fellow RC-ers!:fish2:
I have a growing colony of red bristleworms in my 30 gallon-ish FOWLR nursery tank. Together they destroyed a yellow tang, a regal blue tang, a baby harem of 4 green mandarinfish, 2 heniochus black-and-whites, and a firefish. Now there's nothing left but a snail-and-crab CUC which are fighting the worms as we speak. If there's a way to eradicate them or at least keep them at bay, please let me know.
Best Wishes,
BlueDolphin123:fish2::fish1:
 
Sounds like too many fish in a small tank. Bristleworm populations usually explode due to too much food being present. I'd bet on fish dying from another cause and the worms just being their to clean up the bodies.
 
Have you seen bristle worms kill a fish, or just seen them making a meal out of a dead fish?

Twelve years in the hobby and I've never heard of bristle worms killing a fish.

Maybe if you share some water parameters like ammonia & nitrate from your tank we can offer some help. And what kind of filtration are you using? A sump, filter socks, water changes, how much live rock, and reactors for GFO, carbon or phosphorous?
 
Sure is a ton of fish for 30gallons. My guess .... ammonia spike killed your fish, bristleworms quadrupled

Please read some of the articles in this forum. People spent a good amount of time to make your life easy.
 
...
To clarify, I didn't keep all those fish in one aquarium at once; the worms killed the fish over the course of a few months. Maybe I forgot to add the word "progressively". I did see them fighting fish and/or the fish trying to swim away from them. Nevertheless, they are quite the nuisance to deal with.
They steal the food, creep into rocks, colonize the sand and they killed a nassarius snail last night. They are now using its shell as a home. They're about half an inch at smallest and 3 inches at longest. I hope this helps a bit more.
-BlueDolphin123:fish2::fish1:
 
The aquarium is a size 29 Aqueon aquarium. FOWLR with snail+crab CUC used as a nursery tank. It's running on a 206 Fluval canister filter and an Aqueon QuietFlow filter size 30.
Here are the parameters.
KH : 180
pH : 8.0
Ammonia : 0ppm
Nitrite : 0ppm
Nitrate : 0ppm
Hold it!(blingblingbling!) The water needs to be a little more alkaline; 8.2-8.4 pH I think? Shoot.:headwallblue: But I doubt it's case closed yet. I don't think the problem is pH alone.
What do you think?
BlueDolphin123:fish2::fish1:
 
If you want the bristle worms gone you may have to trap and remove them. Get some panty hose, make a small 2-3 inch pouch (cut the toe off it works best) put a piece of shrimp in it then tie it closed with a string. Leave string attached and make sure it's long enough to hang over the edge of the tank. Bury the panty hose in the substrate and give it a while. Worms should try and eat the shrimp through the hose but get stuck to it. You can then pull them out and dip in fresh water to remove. If you have enough large bristle worms, you may need to set more than one trap. However I do agree with others here. Bristle worms aren't known for being predatorial they are opportunistic feeders. If the worms are actually making chase and or ambushing the fish, you may have bobbit worms instead of bristle worms. Or some other type of worm. To my knowledge, bristle worms don't have any mouth pieces to latch onto fish, rather their stingers are more of a defense mechanism.
 
CrayolaViolence said:
If you want the bristle worms gone you may have to trap and remove them. Get some panty hose, make a small 2-3 inch pouch (cut the toe off it works best) put a piece of shrimp in it then tie it closed with a string. Leave string attached and make sure it's long enough to hang over the edge of the tank. Bury the panty hose in the substrate and give it a while. Worms should try and eat the shrimp through the hose but get stuck to it. You can then pull them out and dip in fresh water to remove. If you have enough large bristle worms, you may need to set more than one trap. However I do agree with others here. Bristle worms aren't known for being predatorial they are opportunistic feeders. If the worms are actually making chase and or ambushing the fish, you may have bobbit worms instead of bristle worms. Or some other type of worm. To my knowledge, bristle worms don't have any mouth pieces to latch onto fish, rather their stingers are more of a defense mechanism.
Click to expand...


⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️ What he said...
 
Dizzle63 said:
Sounds like too many fish in a small tank. Bristleworm populations usually explode due to too much food being present. I'd bet on fish dying from another cause and the worms just being their to clean up the bodies.
Click to expand...

I agree.
 
That was to CrayolaViolence. Snorvich, I'd like to point out that I stated earlier the fact that these fish were progressively killed over the course of several months, and were not actually kept in the tank at the same time.
-BlueDolphin123:fish2::fish1:
P.S.
I have a little hunch that the the larger of the baby heniochus black-and-whites actually pecked the leader of the mandarin harem to death. I can't be sure. I'll go over aquarium footage again.
P.P.S.
To once more clear up the confusion, this is the order that the fish were kept in. I'll refer to death periods as "extinctions", as my natural nerdy self.
Extinction 1: Regal Blue+Yellow Tangs
Extinction 2: 3 of the mandarinfish harem (the biggest one survived)
Extinction 3: The big mandarinfish and the big heniochus out of the two
Extinction 4: The smaller heniochus and the firefish.
After destroying all of the baby (not juvenile) fish, the worms now rule supreme. After CrayolaViolence's point and scouring the Internet, I'm about 50% sure that these are NOT bristleworms.
 
I would take a stepback and evaluate your livestock options. Hippos, yellow tangs, and heniochus need big tanks. Theres some helpful users pointing you in the right direction. Theres also a ton of info on what works well for small tanks. See if any of those interests you.
 
Hiss...
These are half-inch to one inch baby fish in discussion, the 30g tank is a nursery tank, I have a bigger aquarium to transfer to, and I personally know nobody who would keep those little ones in a tank of that size when they grow up. (Well, better out than in.)
But I DO see your point. I guess I'll be more careful with the clutch of clownfish eggs. And I'll see what I can do with the panty hose method. If it fails, I'll let you know.
-BlueDolphin123:fish2::fish1:
 
But, just to let you know, I do have a "who-died-and-made-you-queen bee" attitude. In short, I don't really like it when people miss my point and verbally treat me like a noob. So, yeah. Sorry for the outburst.
Not looking to start any flamewars here.
Really.
-BlueDolphin123:fish2::fish1:
 
I have seen bristle worms attacking a mostly alive fish but it was covered in sores from disease and shipping stress. I just do not see how they could get to a healthy fish, and further how they could latch on with their lack of jaws.

Are you sure it is not another type of worm?


This guy has a worse bristle worm problem than you. (Nightmare warning)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq08mk7zzb0
 
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