H. Crispa Anemone and Bristle Worms

[Reef Moss]

A quick question, I have a H. Crispa Anemone and my tank also has tons of hitchhiker Bristle Worms. I have seen a blog that says the worms may disturb the H Crispa.....Any truth to that?

Regards,
Shelley

 

[Louis Z]

I had a bubble tip on a rock and at night out came these pink stubby bristlwrms. They were very different from the regular browns one that come out after feeding. These never did . I did not know they were there until the bubble tip was too weak. It was rather too late I had tried doing everything to keep my parameters stable , flow right, ample light and nothing worked . I was clueless to these guys . They parked themselves under the rock where the anemone lived. The tank was at a school so I never saw the tank at night. until we had a late night function at the school and the lights were out in the tanks . That's when I saw them . They were on the anemone . Pulled the rocks out . Vacuumed the gravel scooping any bristleworms out. Decreased the sand depth to expose them better. Got out the rock and put in a canister filter with bio media to handle the ammonia and nitrates . Got an arrow crab(they relish bristleworms). The bubble tip never recovered . Now ,do you have that species in your tank ? Probably not. So,I don't think you would have a problem . But arrow crabs make short work of bristleworms . They tear them in half and eat them like candy.

 

[Louis Z]

Hopefully someone else chimes in . And if not, post the question in the clownfish and anemone forum .

 

[humphreyhh]

Sorry. I started with dry rock and dry sand. I never had those worms in my tank. Someone else might be able to help.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[shred5]

A quick question, I have a H. Crispa Anemone and my tank also has tons of hitchhiker Bristle Worms. I have seen a blog that says the worms may disturb the H Crispa.....Any truth to that?

Regards,
Shelley

I would say no.. I had a H. crispa for many years that got absolutely huge and I had bristle worms in that tank and never a issue.

Bristle worm family is huge though and not saying there may not be a variety that preys on anemones. 30 + years in this hobby and I certainly have seen none.

Internet spews allot of garbage. Funny how people are again afraid of bristleworms. We used to add them as part of the clean up crew. Most bristle worms are harmless and good for eating uneaten food.
I had one the was a herbivore and ate algae once. He tended to his little garden of algae.

The problem is when something dies they are one of the first things to start eating it and get blamed for way to many deaths.

 

[Louis Z]

I agree they get blamed for many things . But I had a stable aq with a long living anemone. Yes I had bristleworms in that tank that ate uneaten food and they were brownish and had no problem wth anemone. But I added some live rock and started having problems . These guys were the size of pill bugs and pink . I started to see the anemone shrink and thought water parameters were off . Changed water and tested more often . Still no improvement. But the regular ones never had bothered him . So have I seen them again . No

 

[smatter]

The only thing they're bad for are your fingers in my experience. I handled some live rock a couple of weeks ago and got nailed. It has only just stopped hurting in the past couple of days.

 

[rhdoug]

I have had a crispa since 2002, and none of the bristleworms seem to have bothered it. I had a few really big ones in the beginning but rarely see any now.