bristle worm question

[Bughead]

A couple of times in the past year and a half I've gotten baby bristle worms from ipsf to help stir the live sand. Now I'm finding 4 and 5 inchers all over the place in the 40 gal FOWLR. I can count at least 12 of these guys just hanging out of the rocks and even wrapped around the caulerpa. I don't have any corals to worry about, but are these big bristle worms still a good thing? I don't want them attacking the snails. I suppose they're so big and prolific because there's plenty to eat. There's only a maroon clown and pajama cardinal in there and I feed them twice a day. Anyway, do you guys think there's a problem?

[hcp28]

I've always found bristle worms to be fine as long as they aren't of the red smooth variety, but then again Dr. Ron says that most bristle worms are very good for the aquaria and only a few bristle worms are actually harmful. I'd say leave them in, but it's up to you. You could get a flame hawk that would take care of your worm problem and any other little critters you got running around. HTH

Henry

[the_blue_tuna]

The only problem I have with worms that big is the possibility of brushing up against or inadvertantly touching/grabbing one when cleaning the inside of the tank. The little guys are bad enough but I could just imagine grabiing ten times the bristles As far as becoming a predator , I would not worry about that.

[Reinhold]

If you ever want to "harvest" some of those bristle worms, let me know. I'd love some in my tank.