Bristleworms...........

[Raine11]

I've be observing a few different worms in my tank the last few days. The one in the picture is the only one I can get an ok picture of. The other is the same color but is half black. These guys good? I always fear the worst.

 

[Raine11]

Ah looked up after posting this and snapped a pic of the other one.

 

[150Ron]

If it is alive and healthy in the aquarium they wont eat it or bother it. If it's sick, decaying or uneaten they will. They are a normal part of a saltwater tank and part of the clean up crew. No worries

 

[rt67ghy]

The first one is good. Will eat uneaten food. It's hard to see what the other one looks like from the pic but it may be the same as the first. I think the red colour shows after they've eaten so the one in the second pic may be the same as the one in the first but doesn't have food in it.

 

[Raine11]

Thanks guys! I assumed so. Always learning new things.

 

[Fish Stix]

I know they're supposed to be there but I hate em. If I see a rock with a crazy amount of them sticking out, I still boil it....

 

[rssjsb]

I know they're supposed to be there but I hate em. If I see a rock with a crazy amount of them sticking out, I still boil it....

They're not that hard to control. Just don't overfeed. Bristleworms are something you start appreciating over time. You just need to remember to wear gloves when you need to pick something up.

 

[hotelbravo]

man i would pay for some rock thats infested with bristleworms they are very beneficial, and in my opinion are better than hermits and shrimp.

 

[Shawn O]

When I removed my sand bed, which was a week or two after buying my tank, I found about 3 spaghetti worms, 1 small bristle and about 6 tiny ones, which I moved to the qt tank I had my fish and rock in. I'd never seen them coming out of the rock before this. A couple months later I have hundreds of them and some of them can stretch over 6" long when reaching out of the rock for food. These guys come out at every feeding. I guess it shows I feed my fish too much but I'm happy for the little extra diversity in the tank.

 

[Masterofstuff]

still boil em lol.

 

[Betta132]

They're actually quite beneficial. If you have too many, the worst that'll happen is your rock will have worms on it, and any scavenging inverts you purposefully try to feed will have a bit of a tougher time getting at the food.

 

[hotelbravo]

still boil em lol.

strongly disagree.

 

[Masterofstuff]

I wasn't agreeing just loling that someone said that. I have some orange/purple bristle worms in my tank and they are quite beautiful but also small the big ones scare me.

 

[Umbra]

They're IMO among the best cuc. They don't seem to get eaten as easily as some other small inverts like snails, they're mostly benign and generally keep to themeslves (unlike those bloody hermits) and they actually clean the insides of the rocks.

 

[johnike]

I have literally hundreds in my refugium.
My ball of chaeto is just crawling with them. Great part of the crew IMO.

 

[Leilanni]

They are so creepy! I, too, have the urge to get rid of them but the more I read the more it sinks in that they are an integral part to a marine tanks clean up crew.