How long to kill Bristle Worms in my live rock?

[thiagos]

I know a lot of you will say that Bristle Worms are good but they freak me out. My live rock was infested with them and they have a reddish color to them.
My tank is really well established for a year so I'm thinking of removing all the live rock, leave it in a bag outside under the sun.
I heard cooking is dangerous and I don't feel comfortable with bleaching it.
If I leave it in a plastic bag in a sunny spot, how long will it take for the bristle worms to die? I don't really care if the living organisms in my rock die, as long as I get rid of them.
Thanks!

 

[Steveabg]

If bristle worms freak you out, it's a good thing some of the things living in your tank are too small to see. :dance:

 

[thiagos]

If bristle worms freak you out, it's a good thing some of the things living in your tank are too small to see. :dance:

Amen! Lol
As long as I don't see it, I'm gucci!

 

[G_Sanab922]

Do you completely want to clean the rocks and start them from fresh?

If so I would put it in water with white vinegar. Leave it for about a week or two. That's what I did with mine.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

You are defeating the purpose of the live rock by killing it off. To reduce the population of bristleworms in your tank you simply have to cut back on feedings. Their population is regulated by the availability of food. Less food = less bristleworms. They are highly beneficial and efficient detrivores.

 

[MJSavage]

You are defeating the purpose of the live rock by killing it off. To reduce the population of bristleworms in your tank you simply have to cut back on feedings. Their population is regulated by the availability of food. Less food = less bristleworms. They are highly beneficial and efficient detrivores.

I agree.

 

[AdamNC]

Get a Neon Dotty Back, I've had one in the past and never saw any Bristle Worms after getting him.

 

[NYC/NJREEFS]

Bristle Worms

Bristle Worms

There are traps in the market which you can use to reduce them. I would try this instead of killing off the beneficial bacteria on the rocks by drying it out or bleaching it. Good luck.

 

[jonapunk]

Bristle worms are good for the tank they eat what the crabs shrimp and snails cant they also provide food for when.say an emerald crab decides it wants meat. Mines eaten two that I have seen

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

buy a 6line.

 

[Reefer54]

you are just gonna have to get over it.....they are some of the best little critters in your tank. if they really bother you, and you can catch them...do this. And this picture also goes to show that if your corals are healthy, bristle worms are not harming them....it is when your corals are sick that bristle worms move in. this particular worm crawled out of the rock and got his little face a little too close to the acan mouth....teaches it right for trying to steal food.

 

[MauiGuy]

I've lived with Bristleworms (some call them Fireworms) for years now. I just did a thorough cleaning with a boa syphon on the gravel substrate with freshwater dips of all my live rock for 10-15 seconds. Stuns the fuzzy creatures enough so you can pick them out of the puka's [holes for you not living in Hawaii] with a tweezer or just swish the rock and they fall right out! I must have removed 100 or so Wore double latex gloves to keep from getting stung. I thought I had gotten the population under control. I feed my tank every OTHER day to keep my fish lean and (as nature intended) hungry.

Now, 10 days later, it seems I have more worms than ever before. I wouldn't mind, but they keep pestering my cowry shell and I'm hopeful they won't mess with my collector hermit crab. Mr. Crab keeps some cool anenome's on his shell. So, last night, I designed and set a trap from YouTube, where you put air tube in the sides of a bottle and leave it on the sandbed. Watched worms crawl into the tubes, but left their butts hanging just far enough in the tube to crawl back out. A cube of frozen Mysis shrimp made them go toward the bottle.

With anticipation this AM, I checked the tank only to find the bottle wormless with every stitch of shrimp missing from inside. Those worms are so crafty! I'd love to think I could pull a drawstring and capture one at a time as suggested, but with literally more than 100 to eradicate, I need a trap what I can toss in and "set it and forget it" overnight. I read one post years ago about piercing an old film canister in such a way as to leave behind a conical shape with shards sticking out. The worms crawl into the puka[pronounced POO-ka] and when they try to back out, they get "stuck". Ever heard of that?

I want to get some Zoanthids, and haven't had much success with keeping them. They start to close and get smaller and smaller and then eventually disappear. Bristle worms are constantly in there crawling all over them. I figure I need to reduce my bristle-age to few to none before spending $$$ on some Zoas.

Ideas?

 

[TheBookWorm]

Dottybacks eat them, so do coral banded shrimp. CBS, don't generally get along with other shrimp, though. And dottybacks are mean.

 

[Eileen1966]

I had ordered Joe's Juice as I has some anomes it my tank ans while I was taking care of the anomes, I got mad at a bristle worm and gave him a shot of some of Joe's Juice and to my delight I killed the bristle worm. My tank is totally infested with them that I take my sun coral out to feed them because they eat so slow. I tried the peroxide method and accidentally killed my shrimp and colt coral. I am so irritated with my tank that I want to throw away all my rock and sand and stard all over but in doing so I would be throwing a lot of money, so I really need to figure out a better solution.

 

[Gwoardnog]

I've literally had some bristle worms be over 2' long in a 29 gallon (std), I've seen them. I'm pretty sure they were why my snails and hermits ended up dead. They can kill stuff imo/e.

It was a mature tank (over 3 years), but just saying. I want to say they had a factor in one of my breeding pairs death (osc. clownfish, the once male now female, she had been protecting her nest from them that I saw a few nights), but after she ended up dead I gave it all up (though I did witness her protect the eggs from a b. worm at one point). They're fine, but after you see one over a few feet long.... **** 'em.


I'm not saying that they don't have their place, but there are some things with other meat eaters to consider is all....

 

[supertony]

you are just gonna have to get over it.....they are some of the best little critters in your tank. if they really bother you, and you can catch them...do this. And this picture also goes to show that if your corals are healthy, bristle worms are not harming them....it is when your corals are sick that bristle worms move in. this particular worm crawled out of the rock and got his little face a little too close to the acan mouth....teaches it right for trying to steal food.

I love this picture! Next show me one where it's a brittle star being eaten. And I don't mean the micro ones. I mean the red and white striped ones that grow big and annoy my coral. And steal their food.

The worms are great. If you want to pick yours out, you can give them to me.

 

[KafudaFish]

 

[Relojdepeso]

I had the same problem got a six line wrase and i havent seen one since so you might want to try one plus they are great little fish

 

[earthboy17]

Get an arrow crab! Super neat to watch.
Mine would be double-fisting those bristle worms.