[underseaworld]

I have caught at least 10 bristle worms in the last couple weeks. I have been told that they are not good for your tank. I also have been told that as long as they are small they are ok for your tank. Is this true? I am sorry if this is all old question to you all. But I am still trying to figure out this site and how everything works on this site. By far the best I have found. Thanks....

[Reefland]

Bristle worms are very beneficial in a reef tank; a detritivore. If you remove them make sure you place them in a bag of water and send them to me!

[Sueet]

Me too! Me too!

[Ninong]

Check out my responses and my bristle worm pic in this thread: PLEASE HELP Bristle worms

[underseaworld]

Thanks for all the help. Sorry but I have caught these worms and they were in the 1" to 2" range. I caught them in a baited trap. So they will not do any damage to my coral? It will take me a long time to catch these guys to make the quanity worth your wild. hehehe.

[underseaworld]

I found this site on the net last night. Why are people sending so many mixed messages on this topic? At this web site the general idea is that it is good for the tank. At others it is bad.
Being new to all of this I am still confused.



http://www.homereef.com/reference/bristle.html

[Ninong]

Part of the confusion lies in the fact that the common name "bristle worm" applies to hundreds of different species. Some people even use it for worms without any obvious bristles. Most, but not all, are harmless scavengers that will not bother live animals.

Very often someone will look into their tank and see bristle worms eating the remains of one of their prized Tridacna spp. clams and mistakenly believe that the bristle worms killed the clam. It is much more likely that the clam was already dying (they die in sections) when the bristle worms were alerted by chemical cues that dinner was being served. The is very similar to someone seeing Nassarius spp. snails eating a dead or dying animal in their tank and blaming it on the snails.

Another thing that leads to confusion is that people will lift something on their sand bed (LPS or clam for example) and notice a bristle worm or two that was hiding under the clam or stony coral. This is no different than lifting a rock in the garden and seeing earthworms beneath it. It doesn't necessarily mean that the worms were bothering anything at all, they were just hanging out there.

If you read something that someone has to say about bristle worms in general, ask yourself if that person is an expert in polychaete worms or just a generalist in the hobby. Has he positively identified the species of worm in question or is he simply making a general statement? Has he actually witnessed a worm attacking a live, healthy animal or simply reporting what he saw after the fact.

Anecdotal reports can be misleading because often well-intentioned people think they see things happening in their tanks when, in fact, they are misinterpreting what they are seeing.

If you have questions about a specific species of worm that you would like us to look up for you, that's one thing, but if you are just wondering about so-called bristle worms in general, the only advice I could offer would be to tell you that I would not remove any from my tank unless I had positively identified them as being carnivorous. Most of them are extremely beneficial scavengers that perform valuable clean-up duties in reef tanks.

[Ninong]

Notice what Albert Thiel said in that article that you linked:

"Whereas small bristle worms may look really harmless, larger specimens that have grown to sizes of 24 inches or more in length are quite impressive and can cause serious damage."

That is an extremely general statement with a good bit of truth to it in that most 24" worms are problematic in reef tanks. My Eurythoe complanata will never reach 24" in length.

Here is a worm that I would recommend removing: Caught a 6 foot long worm in my tank!