Help! Should I be worried about bristle worms?

[billdogg]

You should be worried if you don't have them. They are a vital part of a healthy system. I cannot imagine a tank without.

Those who would argue otherwise are just plain misinformed.

Don't believe me? Please go to www.wetwebmedia.com and do a quick search, or just ask them - they are all professionals in the field btw - and see what they have to say.

I'm always relieved when I can find an anonymous person online to tell me not to believe my lying eyes, and instead listen to their strongly stated opinion. Thanks, Bill from the messageboards. Direct observation can be so misleading.

Absence of personal experience with a rare event does not support the conclusion that the rare event never happens.

(definitely agree with the statement that theyre in all our tanks, though, FTR)

It's a question sometimes of knowing what you're looking at. Bristleworms have only tubes for mouths, and generally respond to the chemicals of decomposition. They're generally found at the scene of demise, but not as the agent of same.

I fully believe that you saw them devouring something in your tank. That is, after all, their purpose in life. I will argue to the end, however, that whatever it was they were eating was already dead or dying. Just because it might have looked ok to you does not mean it wasn't on it's way out. I, too, have watched them clean a clam shell spotlessly in very short order. It's really pretty incredible to witness. I know for a fact, however, that they were just cleaning up the remains. How do I know that you might ask? Because another maxima clam, sitting within 2" of their target, was left completely untouched. If they were the ravenous monsters you seem to think they are, they would certainly have taken the other while they were there. I have had the very same thing happen to a few LPS corals as well. Picked clean while their neighbors are left alone.

Did you bother to read where I pointed you?

 

[sde1500]

Did you bother to read where I pointed you?

Why read when you can just post with a tone of such indignation?!?