Help me get rid of the worm

[frogiii]

Today.. I found bunch of them living inside my tank. One was at least 5" or 8" long. I found the worm by one of the dead peppermint shrimp. It was fighting with my Brittlestar fish to get the dead shrimp. is there ways to capture these worms? So far i've seen 4 of them inside the rocks. Will these worms harm anything in my coral at this moment? Help me plz...........

 

[laverda]

No reason to get ride of them, they are just cleaning up your tank for you!

 

[MG21]

One is a bristle worm and the others look like starfish legs. (serpent or brittle star)

 

[So Cal shaggy]

That is a bristleworm they are one of the many species of worms that come into your tank with the live rock they are scavengers and usually do not cause any harm unless you try to pick them up with your bare hands I would be more worried about getting that dead shrimp out of the tank.

 

[JeffersonReef]

Keep the bristle worms. They are arguably one of the best detrivores you can have! I wish I had a few in my fuge...

-TJ

 

[Sk8r]

The big pink/orange/blackish worms are indeed Pacific Bristleworms, and you'd have to buy some if you didn't have them. ---Seriously, they're good for your tank. They're trying to help clean it up. That shrimp died of something else. Bristleworms can only eat decaying flesh and fish poo.

 

[frogiii]

o.. okay. I though it was bad worm. I check it again when all the light were out, they're like all over on the rock sand, everywhere in my tank. They look nasty though. You want some Antjefferson? lol

 

[supernareg]

and thats a cleaner skunk shrimp... not peppermint

 

[Sohal11]

If you don't like the look for any reason, you can always put it in my tank. I don't mind have some of those running around in my tank as long as they are doing their job.

Seriously, those are the good guys.

 

[frogiii]

Will these worms eat all my pod population tho?

 

[So Cal shaggy]

Those bristleworms are scavengers they are the good guys they will not bother your pods nor will they bother healthy fish or inverts they will only scavenge dead decaying tissue they cannot take "bites" out of your healthy corals or fish. Just do not touch them with bare hands they will give you an annoying "sting" which is not life threatening but it will make life miserable for a few days because of the burning itching that it causes.

 

[Sk8r]

and if your fish gets into an argument with one, he may get a bristle 'beard', but it will fall off after a few days, no harm done. You, however, wear gloves when lifting rock in your tank.

The cure for the sting is hot water, run over your finger or whatever caught it.