Does cooking rock kill bristleworms (and the like)?

T

tonyespinoza

Premium Member
I would guess that if you cook rock long enough, there just wouldn't be anything for these guys to eat. But I have no idea how long they can last. (Maybe way longer than the 8 wk cooking cycle I was hoping for!)

I don't want to get into the debate about whether these guys are good or bad. :-) I'm setting up a propagation system and want to build as simple and focused an environment for my SPS as possible. Apart from a Fuge, Cryptic zone, and some anthias and tangs, there will be nothing else in the tank (no mushrooms, LPS, anemones, zoas, etc.).

Thanks for any insights!

-tE
 
And by the way, the reason for the question is that I do have bristles in my other tank where I could pull mature live rock to seed the new system (not to be confused with my post about cooking dead rock, which obviously wouldn't have any of these worms... )
 
When I cooked my rocks several years ago, it was for a very extended time period, almost 6 months. No bristles survived.
 
alternatives

alternatives

Cooking the rock works great, so long as you're careful... If the rock retains pockets of moisture, you'll end up with the 'baked potato in the microwave' effect...
If the tank is not going to have corals in it, a potassium permanganate bath could also work... kills worms dead, but I'm not 100% on what, if anything, would be left as trace.
 
Rock cooking with a little spice

Rock cooking with a little spice

Back in May when i tore down my 75 gal 4yr old reef i had a huge population of Tulip anems that i wanted gone from my rock (100lbs). I decided to put the rock into a 32gal brute can with a heater, MJ1200 and set a lid on it to keep light out. During the tear down i was left with 8-10 stalks of zenia that a guy was supposed to pick up and never did. As the corals started to fade because of not enough light in my fuge, and no one was coming to get them for free, i tossed them into the rock barrel and set the lid on it and forgot about it for about a week and a half. I came home one day to be greeted by an odor that would make you puke. Upon opening the lid i nearly did. I added a skimmer to the barrel and closed off the top as best as i could to keep the stench in. The skimmer pulled tons of nasty stuff out for 2 weeks. And the smell slowly went away. After the 3rd week i opened the lid and looked in with a flashlight and saw no tulips, and no movement of any kind. The rock sat like that for another week. I then shook it out and transfered it to a 100gal rubbermaid tub with skimmer,heat, and a 4 bulb T5 fixture. It has been under lights for 8-9 hrs a day for 3 weeks and the only thing i have seen appear are small tufts of green hair algae. No worms, no pods, no tulips or even aptaisia. I am going to let it run for the month of November, and if it stays clean i will add it to my sump in my new system.
 
just put it in a bucket of water with 3 times the required amount of flatworm exit in it.the worms will vacate the rocks fast and drop to the bottom stunned.make sure the rock is'nt touching the bottom of the bucket so t5hey can't get back to the rocks.only takes an hour or less,maybe a few minutes.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13659898#post13659898 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ngn8dogg
What eats bristle worms?
Click to expand...

Why what to they harm? I have had them in my tank since it's been set up two years ago and would add them to any tank that didn't have them.
 
I had a nano tank go unattended for a week or two once and hit ~85ppt salinity. A few bristleworms survived in the rocks, they're tough. (Don't worry, nothing in that tank but some rock rubble and ~20 zoanthid polyps, a few of which survived the ordeal).

As for removing them completely from a system, I think that's doomed to failure whether they're desirable or not, especially if you have a refugium and cryptic zone.
 
I just got some anthias and couldn't get them to eat so I was over-feeding my tank to find something they liked. Anyway, as a result I had an EXPLOSION of bristle worms. I figured out a little trick. Take a woman's pantyhose and put a raw cocktail shrimp in it - tie it up like a little baggie (soak it in RO water for a few minutes first to get rid of any PO4 - frozen ones are preserved with PO4), and put it in your tank just after you turn your lights out. Make sure the pantyhose is anchored down with a rock or something. The bristle worms will come out at night to eat the shrimp but their bristles will get caught in the panty hose. When you turn the light on in the morning, remove the pantyhose with the bristle worms.

(BTW, they're great scavengers and very beneficial to the tank in small numbers, it's when their population gets out of control that you can start to have problems.)
 
About 2 years ago I bought some live rock and had to travel across the desert. So we packed the rock down with ice in a chest. When we went to unpack the live rock out of the ice chest , we had dead bristleworms in the freezing cold water. That rock was the first to seed my tank over 2 years ago. Not sure they all died. As of yet i have never noticed any of them. Just a thought.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13669366#post13669366 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ziggy222
they will eat clams
Click to expand...
Really? Is it just certain kinds or is it all clams? More details.
 
its something that happens from time to time when you have alot of large worms.it can happen to any kind of clam.after i killed off most of my bristle worms,i did'nt get all,but most,my tank changed.i noticed alot of baby starfish,pods,tube worms,stomatella snails,chittons,and other stuff.i'd rather have all that other stuff than fire worms.
 
i heard that if you poor club soda on the live rocks they will all come out. never tried it, does anyone know if thats true or tried it?
 
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