Worm in my tank need an id?

[kyledf]

Hi I have this large worm only comes out at night just came with my live rock.

Let me know if you can't see it.

 

[Mrs B]

Hi its a bristle worm nothing to worry about as they are good clean up crew.
Just dont pick one up as you will get the there small hairs in your fingers and they hurt alot.
I have one in my tank he comes out sometime to eat the left over food.

 

[Big Dog]

Hi its a bristle worm nothing to worry about as they are good clean up crew.
Just dont pick one up as you will get the there small hairs in your fingers and they hurt alot.
I have one in my tank he comes out sometime to eat the left over food.

I betcha you have a lot more than 1 ................

 

[Betta132]

Bristleworm. If you have one, you have more. Check at night, they're nocturnal. And yes, don't touch them.

 

[Mrs B]

This is my Bristtle worm

 

[rssjsb]

Am I imagining eunice worm mouth parts in that picture?

 

[kyledf]

Yes It has tentacles on its head but not quite sure if it is a eunice worm. It was attacking my snail at one point then got scared from me taking a closer look. Not sure whether to put some traps in to remove it don't want it to be a problem later. Im just cycling my tank 1 week in so it would be better to remove it now before I have fish and corals etc?

 

[Jone]

get rid of him...good husbandry on your part will take care of water quality,,worms eat leftover food and detrius..every living thing on this planet eats something but also gets rid of its waste too which contributes to poor water quality....my tank,,worms good or bad,,there gone

 

[kyledf]

Ok thanks I will have to flush it out with some soda water or ro water today. I have other smaller ones crawling around too not sure how many only seen the one other small one.

 

[Calappidae]

get rid of him...good husbandry on your part will take care of water quality,,worms eat leftover food and detrius..every living thing on this planet eats something but also gets rid of its waste too which contributes to poor water quality....my tank,,worms good or bad,,there gone

That is a terrible reason to get rid of benefical livestock.. bristleworms and fireworms are harmless and should be left alone in aquariums. I don't want to sound harsh, but that made no sense.. getting rid of it's own waste contributes to poor water quality? I'm not following, on the contrary that sounds more benefical.

Unless you have specific reason like children's hands in the tank and worried about them getting stung, worms are better left alone if you know they're benefical.


Anyway:

Am I imagining eunice worm mouth parts in that picture?

No, we both are :beer:

I think that is indeed an eunice, they're harmful predators that should be taken out. Bad thing is if there's one there's usually many many more.

What gives it away for me in that image is the lack of "bristles" (which appear to be legs in this case) and the antennas.

 

[Big Dog]

get rid of him...good husbandry on your part will take care of water quality,,worms eat leftover food and detrius..every living thing on this planet eats something but also gets rid of its waste too which contributes to poor water quality....my tank,,worms good or bad,,there gone

..... you have more worms than you think you do! Do you have a fuge?

That is a terrible reason to get rid of benefical livestock.. bristleworms and fireworms are harmless and should be left alone in aquariums. I don't want to sound harsh, but that made no sense.. getting rid of it's own waste contributes to poor water quality? I'm not following, on the contrary that sounds more benefical.

Unless you have specific reason like children's hands in the tank and worried about them getting stung, worms are better left alone if you know they're benefical.


Anyway:


No, we both are :beer:

I think that is indeed an eunice, they're harmful predators that should be taken out. Bad thing is if there's one there's usually many many more.

What gives it away for me in that image is the lack of "bristles" (which appear to be legs in this case) and the antennas.

Excellent post!

 

[Jone]

In what way are bristle and fire worms beneficial,,by your standards??
I have softies,zoa and paly tanks and most worms are a nuiscance or an irritatator to zoas/palys...especially spagetti worms,,I head hunt those all the time with a turkey baster..A real aggravator to zoas/palys....
If anyone has alot of bristle worms or other worms then they should reconsider why they have such a population.. Usually overfeeding or lack of routine maintinance and other reasons too..
No doubt I have some in my tanks but as soon as they show their face ,,I eventually get them..One of the main reasons why I started my tanks with dry rock..
Each to their own when it comes to what they want in their tank..
Keep in mind that the more variables you have in your tank,,there will be more variables you wont be able to control..Just give it the perfect situation and you'll be on the defense..
Eunice worms are a topic all their own,,and many more others..

That is a terrible reason to get rid of benefical livestock.. bristleworms and fireworms are harmless and should be left alone in aquariums. I don't want to sound harsh, but that made no sense.. getting rid of it's own waste contributes to poor water quality? I'm not following, on the contrary that sounds more benefical.

Unless you have specific reason like children's hands in the tank and worried about them getting stung, worms are better left alone if you know they're benefical.

 

[kyledf]

So it is a eunice would a bristle worm trap work for them or I just have to flush it with the soda water? Will the soda water kill any other critters on the rock? Thanks for all the help [emoji18]

 

[Calappidae]

In what way are bristle and fire worms beneficial,,by your standards??

Bristle and fireworms are excellant scavengers that get inbetween the rockwork crevices which most CUC fail to achieve. Their fast repopulation enables them to easily keep up with the tanks bioload. (I.E. what they contribute is cleaned up 10x over by themselfs)

I have softies,zoa and paly tanks and most worms are a nuiscance or an irritatator to zoas/palys...especially spagetti worms,,I head hunt those all the time with a turkey baster..A real aggravator to zoas/palys....

You could say that for anything though. Even an amphipod bumping a coral will irritate and cause it to retract, that's not necessarily a variable to discourage the pressence of benefical worms. Spaghetti worms are a different story, for the most part that are just regular harmless filterfeeders/mops but if they do become stationary on a rock (very unlikely as they prefer sand) they can get irritating.. however likewise don't forget a zoa and most softies are fully capable of releasing a chemical on contact to make other organisms back off. The worm isn't exactly enjoying it either when it lives next to a chemical warfare site.

If anyone has alot of bristle worms or other worms then they should reconsider why they have such a population.. Usually overfeeding or lack of routine maintinance and other reasons too..

If somebody would like to do the honors of finding that nano tank thread where a guy literaly had a moving sandbed of bristleworms, I'd appreciate it. He didn't even bother to do anything about it.. because nothing needed to be done. They're just there cleaning up. He got this population before the introduction of anything I think other than a couple frags.

Of course the more food you have in the aquarium, the more "CUC" you'll need. Worms adapt to this and multiply until there is a population to keep up with the incoming quanity of food and waste (from other livestock). Maintence has nothing to do with bristleworms.. there are filterpads less than a month old that are covered in bristleworms (which is when you may get an unlikely, but harmless sting if careless). I don't look in people tanks and judge their caretaking level base on the worms they have.. instead I consiture how much cleaning and less maintence they need in comparison to mine with such a large population.

No doubt I have some in my tanks but as soon as they show their face ,,I eventually get them..One of the main reasons why I started my tanks with dry rock..
Each to their own when it comes to what they want in their tank..
Keep in mind that the more variables you have in your tank,,there will be more variables you wont be able to control..Just give it the perfect situation and you'll be on the defense..

Likewise, you are preforming extra unnecessary routine maintence on your aquarium to make up for what the worms are more than capable of handling. Removing them seems like a unnecessary waste of life. You'd be surprised how people would buy them off of you for their tanks. My LFS even asked for a fireworm from my aquarium when I bought it up. (They assumed I didn't want it, mine! )

Not to mention general reef keeping shouldn't be tampered with too much.. the more you play around in the tank, honestly the worse because you're trying to create a balanced ecosystem that stablizes itself. Tampering with it, such as manually removing and adding bioloads, instead of letting various livestock, good bacteria, and hitchhikers adapt and handle it creating a consistant cycle of life like the ocean itself has... would only be more challenging and unnecessary, that said, I'm not saying don't do anything, just if something's not broke, than don't fix it. Or in other words, if the worms aren't hurting nothing (which theoretically they're not), then don't disturb them.

So it is a eunice would a bristle worm trap work for them or I just have to flush it with the soda water? Will the soda water kill any other critters on the rock? Thanks for all the help [emoji18]

Soda water would kill unforunately. You can also just use regular freshwater. Worm traps may work.. eunice can be pictured like mantis shrimp slightly in that they prefer to wait for food to come to them. I only occasionaly see one crawling around in seperate tank (and I got hundreds), but for the most part they just peep out to see if there is any food hanging around nearby.

 

[Bagabaga]

Quick question here: why is a stationary spaghetti worm in a rock bad? I have one that's inside a specific hole and extends 6 inch tentacles at night and I just thought they were beneficial. Thanks!

 

[Calappidae]

Quick question here: why is a stationary spaghetti worm in a rock bad? I have one that's inside a specific hole and extends 6 inch tentacles at night and I just thought they were beneficial. Thanks!

It's just the "tentacles" get irritating to coral everytime they bump them and they're difficult to remove. Nothing big.

 

[Bagabaga]

Thank you! Got worried for a minute.