[mikebon111]

Hi I have a new tank and I'm starting to have a bristle worm problem. All the animals in my tank are doing great even the bristle worms which are starting to get on my nervs. I have two arrow crabs and they dont seem to be cutting it,I also have a bristle worm trap that I place in my tank at night but I still havn't captured one. I've heard stories of bristle worms growing to be a foot long and eating cleaner shrimp. I've also read that thay are good for your system, which is true? HOW CAN I GET RID OF THEM???????

[Ninong]

I actually purchased a dozen bristleworms (Eurythoe complanata) from www.inlandaquatics.com to add to my tank about a month after starting it up. They grew very fast from about 1" long upon arrival to more than 6" long about two months later. I think they are a great addition to a reef tank. I have not had any problems with mine except for the fact that my Orchid Dottyback (Pseudochromis fridmani) eats them, especially the really big ones!!! I can still find some of the smaller ones (~2"-3") from time to time but they no longer venture out of their hiding places as freely as they did before I got the dottyback.

I wouldn't be concerned about bristleworms. Almost all of them are harmless scavengers with the notable exception of Hermodice carunculata, the Caribbean fire worm. It's a carnivore but it is very rarely found in reef tanks unless you purchased some Gulf of Mexico aquacultured live rock and it happened to come in as a hitchhiker.

Speaking of carnivores, do you realize that arrow crabs (Stenorhynchus seticornis) are carnivores? They will sometimes eat other crabs and even small to medium sized fish, which they spear with their rostrum. I wouldn't worry about removing the bristleworms but I would certainly get rid of the arrow crabs.

Good luck!

[Ninong]

Here is a picture of one of my Eurythoe complanata bristleworms. This one was about 7" long but I'm afraid he was just a tasty hors d'oeuvre for Comus, my Pseudochromis fridmani.

[zhenya]

mikebon111,

I don't think even Hermodice carunculata,being a carnivore and all, would bother any of the fish?I think they are mostly coralivores,more then anything.There are some large worms that are capable of taking a small fish and those are the Eunicid worms,they can get rather large and are capable of taking a small fish.
I totally agree on the arrow crabs not belonging in a reef type tank.

George,
Are you sure your beautiful worm is gone? I love that picture of yours.I used to have one of this worms same size crawling in my tank awhile back but I do not see him anymore either

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by zhenya

George,
Are you sure your beautiful worm is gone? I love that picture of yours.I used to have one of this worms same size crawling in my tank awhile back but I do not see him anymore either

Gene,

Yes, quite sure! There were two very large ones at the far left side of the tank that would always come out from under the live rock whenever I dropped some Formula One Marine pellets onto the sand bed there when the metal halides were off. They would muscle in on a pile of Nassarius vibex snails and snatch the pellets away from them. Besides those two, there were three or four others that were about 4" long at the other side of the tank; but that was before I got Comus.

Now I see a few smaller specimens from time to time but I haven't seen any longer than 3" in a good while.

[mikebon111]

thanks for your help. I guess I'll leave them in. Now I don't know what to do with my arrow crabs, I guess I should of never bought an animal to solve my problems. Well thanks for all your help. PS. Do you have any tips on catching them ? If yes I'll send you as many as you want

Originally Posted by Ninong

I actually purchased a dozen bristleworms (Eurythoe complanata) from www.inlandaquatics.com to add to my tank about a month after starting it up. They grew very fast from about 1" long upon arrival to more than 6" long about two months later. I think they are a great addition to a reef tank. I have not had any problems with mine except for the fact that my Orchid Dottyback (Pseudochromis fridmani) eats them, especially the really big ones!!! I can still find some of the smaller ones (~2"-3") from time to time but they no longer venture out of their hiding places as freely as they did before I got the dottyback.

I wouldn't be concerned about bristleworms. Almost all of them are harmless scavengers with the notable exception of Hermodice carunculata, the Caribbean fire worm. It's a carnivore but it is very rarely found in reef tanks unless you purchased some Gulf of Mexico aquacultured live rock and it happened to come in as a hitchhiker.

Speaking of carnivores, do you realize that arrow crabs (Stenorhynchus seticornis) are carnivores? They will sometimes eat other crabs and even small to medium sized fish, which they spear with their rostrum. I wouldn't worry about removing the bristleworms but I would certainly get rid of the arrow crabs.

Good luck!

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by mikebon111

thanks for your help. I guess I'll leave them in. Now I don't know what to do with my arrow crabs, I guess I should of never bought an animal to solve my problems. Well thanks for all your help. PS. Do you have any tips on catching them ? If yes I'll send you as many as you want

I've never tried to catch bristleworms. I've noticed one thing though and that's the fact that they are extremely fast in pulling back underneath the live rock whenever they feel threatened. Another thing is that for every one that you see there are probably ten more that you don't see. I have heard of people buying bristleworm traps to catch them but I really don't know if those things are any good or not. If you remove some of them then you are just making room for others to fill in the vacancies.

I don't think they pose a hazard of any kind. In fact, they are beneficial scavengers and perform a valuable service. If you are determined to control their numbers, you might want to consider adding one of the three species of Pseudochromis endemic to the Red Sea. Those are the ones reputed to eat bristleworms. Mine (a Pseudochromis fridmani) certainly does. That would be a control to keep their numbers from getting out of hand but I doubt that it would totally eliminate them.

[Rp Marine]

how do they reproduce asexual?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Rp Marine

how do they reproduce asexual?

Bristleworms are capable of both sexual and asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction involves larval stages that do not usually survive in aquaria but asexual reproduction is quite successful in aquaria.

[mikebon111]

I have a trap and it doesn't work. I've read in some books that they are beneficial and others say their "reef nasties"that nip at corals and eat other small inverts. If their not bad I'm not really concerned about them

Originally Posted by Ninong

I've never tried to catch bristleworms. I've noticed one thing though and that's the fact that they are extremely fast in pulling back underneath the live rock whenever they feel threatened. Another thing is that for every one that you see there are probably ten more that you don't see. I have heard of people buying bristleworm traps to catch them but I really don't know if those things are any good or not. If you remove some of them then you are just making room for others to fill in the vacancies.

I don't think they pose a hazard of any kind. In fact, they are beneficial scavengers and perform a valuable service. If you are determined to control their numbers, you might want to consider adding one of the three species of Pseudochromis endemic to the Red Sea. Those are the ones reputed to eat bristleworms. Mine (a Pseudochromis fridmani) certainly does. That would be a control to keep their numbers from getting out of hand but I doubt that it would totally eliminate them.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by mikebon111

I have a trap and it doesn't work. I've read in some books that they are beneficial and others say their "reef nasties"that nip at corals and eat other small inverts. If their not bad I'm not really concerned about them

I believe the problem lies in the fact that when someone notices a bristleworm eating something that was previously alive they assume that the bristleworm killed it when the truth is that it is simply scavenging. If someone sees bristleworms finishing off a dead clam in their tank then they assume that the bristleworms killed it. If you want to see bristleworms, just lift up any clam from the sand bed and you will almost always spot one or two beneath it. They're not a problem unless they decide to make their way inside the clam through the byssal orifice. That's usually not possible with healthy clams. As far as crocea and maxima clams are concerned, they don't belong on the sand bed anyway. It's not natural for them to be there. Both are found on hard substrate in the wild.

I have to move my green/purple fungia frequently because it moves around a lot and if it gets too close to anything else it will sting it. Every time I move it I see a small bristleworm or two but they're not doing any harm. They're just hanging out. Same thing if I move my little pink open brain. Lift up almost anything on the sand bed in your tank and you are likely to see a bristleworm. Sorta like lifting up rocks in the garden and finding earthworms.

[new2salt2]

Are you Freaking kidding me? 7" bristle worms OMG!.. where do they hide in a tank when that big? I have only seen them in mine about 1" at the biggest and hope they never get that huge.. I had no idea they could get that big, but i guess it would be a good deterant to keep the kids away from my tank!! LOL

[Tie]

Originally Posted by new2salt2

Are you Freaking kidding me? 7" bristle worms OMG!.. where do they hide in a tank when that big?

I was reading on the these forums somewhere about some guy that discovered a worm that was 6 FEET LONG in his tank! He had to take the whole thing apart to get at it. He had pics but the links to the pics where gone. I was bummed I didn't get to see it but yeah, they hide under the sand, LR and in this guys case in some PVC that he had framed the LR with.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Tie

I was reading on the these forums somewhere about some guy that discovered a worm that was 6 FEET LONG in his tank! He had to take the whole thing apart to get at it. He had pics but the links to the pics where gone. I was bummed I didn't get to see it but yeah, they hide under the sand, LR and in this guys case in some PVC that he had framed the LR with.

Yeah, that was a pretty big Eunicid worm! Here are the pictures: Caught a 6 foot long worm in my tank!

Here is an interesting article on worms: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-04/rs/

P.S. -- Steve doesn't have that little 500-gal tank anymore. He decided to move up to an 850-gal tank. So far no signs of any new 6-ft polychaetes in the new tank. I'm almost afraid to post the thread of his new 850-gal tank because once you look at these pictures you will never be satisfied with whatever it is that you have right now: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=1

P.P.S. -- He kept the same 72" x 30" opening in the wall of his den where the first tank was located. The new tank is 72" x 90" x 30", which is why all of the pictures have that sense of greath depth. The tank sits on a raised platform in his garage on the other side of his den. All access to the tank is from that raised platform in the garage.

[Samper]

By reading his post about how that worm got so big and what it was eating is it now safe to say that they are not reef safe especially the large ones?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Samper

By reading his post about how that worm got so big and what it was eating is it now safe to say that they are not reef safe especially the large ones?

What do you mean by "now safe to say" that "they" are not reef safe? I guess I'm confused because I'm not sure what you mean by "they."

The opening line in this thread was, "Hi, I have a new tank and I'm starting to have a bristle worm problem."

Of the approximately 9000 species of annelids, more than 8000 are polychaetes. The name "polychaete" means "many bristles." So I guess you could call all 8000 different species of polychaetes "bristleworms" but that's not the way most people think of them.

You really can't generalize. Most polychaetes are perfectly reef-aquarium safe and perform useful scavenging functions. Some are predatory. The particular species of worm that Steve Weast found in his tank is obviously NOT reef-aquarium safe. It is also not what most hobbyists call a bristleworm.

[saltjunkie]

my refug is litterally crammed full of the red bristle worms.. and i wouldnt trade them for anything... every now and then i trade a cup of sand from the fuge to the main take and back... just to make sure i have them in my main tank also!

[eleezy123]

OK i have a huge bristleworm problem i mean gigantic there are so many i dont think they have enough room to hide anymore! i have a 27 gallon aquarium with a skunk cleaner shrimp nemo(clownfish) and a sleeper goby there are literally dozens of them that are well over 3" long some longer i dont know what to do i tried the crabs i tried the wrasse i need a surfire cure for this disease!Dont get me wrong i know they keep everything clean but i dont want them ne more there ugly nd wont die!!! i need a surfire way to exterminate them asap !thank you in advance for any help!

[Startingover]

Sixline wrasse

Also known as the Sixline or Sixstripe Wrasse, Pseudocheilinus hexataenia is native to reefs of the Indo-Pacific and the coast of Fiji. Here, the Six Line Wrasse forages amongst corals and rocks for foods, mainly keeping to itself. In the home aquarium, the Six Line Wrasse requires a peaceful environment with a generous supply of hiding places and live rock on which they can forage for food. Here, the Six Line Wrasse will search for live foods in the form of small crustaceans such as pyramidellid snails (clam parasites), urchins, and commensal flatworms. The Six Line Wrasse is also known to feed on unwanted pests on live rock, such as bristleworms. I hope this helps.

Originally Posted by mikebon111

Hi I have a new tank and I'm starting to have a bristle worm problem. All the animals in my tank are doing great even the bristle worms which are starting to get on my nervs. I have two arrow crabs and they dont seem to be cutting it,I also have a bristle worm trap that I place in my tank at night but I still havn't captured one. I've heard stories of bristle worms growing to be a foot long and eating cleaner shrimp. I've also read that thay are good for your system, which is true? HOW CAN I GET RID OF THEM???????

[My2heartboys]

I know what you are talking about. I have crushed coral in our frag tank and I think it has as many bristleworms as pieces of crushed coral. Here is what I have done a couple of times.

A member of our local club was having problems with her wrass if it did not have bristle worms to eat (it would start picking on the feather dusters), so over about 2-3 nights after lights out I would take a shot glass with some tank water and tweezers (DON'T touch those bad boys with your fingers) and gradually feed out a little bit of garlic algae pellets. As the little buggers came out to feed, I would snag them up with the tweezers and put them in the glass. Over the course of those nights I would get plenty of them for her and she would take them home to her wrass. She finally set up a frag tank of her own to breed them and as far as I know they are doing well and her wrass has nothing to worry about.

Another time, we had a local club member who had started up his tank with mostly dry rock and I snagged up quite a few for him to put in his tank.

I do occasionally find one that is looking a little too fat and healthy and in that case I try to capture him using the above technique and then just throw him in the trash. Otherwise, I just make sure that everybody has plenty of food and go on.

Anne
__________________________________________________ ______________

Originally Posted by eleezy123

OK i have a huge bristleworm problem i mean gigantic there are so many i dont think they have enough room to hide anymore! i have a 27 gallon aquarium with a skunk cleaner shrimp nemo(clownfish) and a sleeper goby there are literally dozens of them that are well over 3" long some longer i dont know what to do i tried the crabs i tried the wrasse i need a surfire cure for this disease!Dont get me wrong i know they keep everything clean but i dont want them ne more there ugly nd wont die!!! i need a surfire way to exterminate them asap !thank you in advance for any help!