Bristleworms in seahorse tank

C

captainandy

Member
Anyone know whether bristleworms are good or bad in a seahorse only tank. In a 50 gal fuge with lots of macros, gorgonians, etc.
 
If I were you, I would eradicate them. There have been quite a few bad cases where a seahorse has snicked a BW and died, etc...
 
Bristleworms can be a threat to your seahorses. The smaller worms are the bigger threat, because they can be accidentally snicked up while feeding.

You should definitely keep them at bay.
 
Wow, I had no idea. Time for search and destroy. I don't like them myself but tolerated them because they're good tank cleaners.
 
There are a few choices. You have to decide which is best for your system.
You can try traps. In my experience they are time consuming and in the grand scheme of things virtually have no effect that is noticable. If you see one or two worms, the reality can be 50 to 100X's that number. No joke.
You can do as the poster did in the link from Seahorse.org and treat all of your live rock with hyper-salinity.
You can remove your live rock completely. You will probably still have a few that you will have to deal with accordingly, as they do also like the substrate.
I personally use other fish to control mine. It's not a popular concept and comes with it's own set of issues...but I don't ever see bristle worms.
 
I have heard that some sixlines do eat BW and some don't. I've never cared for the look of them, myself.
In the past, I had a fairy wrasse that took care of the worms and was a great tankmate, too. I don't know whether or not he was eating pods, but I'm sure given the chance he would have....he was very active, though, not one to seriously hunt out a minute bite.
I have cigar wrasse now, however, I don't suggest the cigar wrasse for a seahorse keeper who has not kept fish in the same tank.
It sounds like you may want to explore some other options. A species only is a great thing!
 
Fairy Wrasse...Hmm...They are lovely. Perhaps I can put in my fuge for a few months and then place in reef. Is there a particular species that's better with the worms or are they really just about the same. Do young ones do as well with BW as more mature size?

Thanks
 
136174WrasseBud.jpg


This was the fish before the cigars.
I should also suggest that you research these fish yourself, too, in case there is something about them that might make you feel differently.
They can be jumpers. That is how I lost this one. Be sure to cover the tank, at least with eggcrate.
I've seen this fish listed by several different names, Whip Fin Fairy, Pennant Fairy, Socil Fairy. You should be able to find it searching any of those.
I can't vouch for any other species to be effective with the worms.
 
i had a ton of bristleworms. then i got a long nose butterfly fish. i stopped seeing bristleworms. i actually saw him try to eat one. after the long nose died, the bristleworms came back. he killed my hawaiian featherdusters too though.
 
About 6 months ago I was told by many on this forum not to worry about BW's in my SH tank. I probably have hundreds. They're here to stay, IMO.
 
Does anybody know if there have been any necropsies performed on the seahorses that died via ingestion of errant polychaetes? I am curious as to what the actual cause of death is or if the reports are credible. The seahorse hobby in particular seems to be full of unsupported claims. The only mechanism I find plausible (that is if we are talking of a risk greater than 1% or so of seahorses dieing after bristleworm digestion) is infection via mycobacterium resulting in death occurring in a matter of days or weeks (not 30 minutes). The mechanism behind the seahorse mortalities would have to be a result of a difference between the natural and artificial environments we provide. If not, we would be seeing widespread seahorse causalities in the wild because errant polychaetes are found in high densities in nature. Needless to say I take an incredulous view of these claims, especially since many have kept high densities of bristleworms in their seahorse tanks (knowingly and unknowningly) without negative effects.
 
whatever fish there is that eats bw I cannot put into my seahorse tank so the bw are there to stay as well. I have never seen my horses snick one and I have tons. I don't think there is any other way to rid them. I was told to try a trap with pantyhose and food and that they would go into the hose and get trapped. They never went in to the hose...
 
Interesting: an exception to the 'bws are good' rule. Could you use an arrow crab? They eat them voraciously. I wouldn't have one near seahorse young, but adults I wouldn't think he'd harm.
 
IME the Arrow crab did not eat the bristle worms although it did not harm my adult seahorses. JME.

I had a six line with my seahorses that did go after the bristleworms, bt not nearly enough to control the numbers. After finding a 4' worm, probably a fireworm, I dipped my rock for ten minutes in rock with 1.040 salinity and rid the system of hundreds of worms. Then of course I was not wise enough to supplement the clean up crew and got hair algae. :D

IME I have never had a problem with bristleworms harming seahorses, however I have read limited reports of others having problems. Since the reports are so minimal, IMO they are not a great risk.

JMO
 
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