20 gallon bristle worm control.

[Scavenger]

Well after seeing my new little reef through tough times (substrate change and not so sucessful fragging) I celebrated the fact I only lost the one leather coral by buying an nice chunk of tonga branch rock.

Well, well, well, about an hour before lights out, what did I see but about 10-20 one inch(ish) bristle worms crawl out to scope out their new digs. :frown: :mad:

Now what to do?

Coral Band Shrimp? Well he'd beat up on my smaller cleaner shrimp

Copperband Butterfly? Too Big and Too finicky for my fledgling nano.

Hawkfish? So far my favorite option. I think a longnose is the answer, but don't want to overload my system.

So far fishwise: I yellow coral (clown) goby. 1 false perc. 1 bangai cardinal. All so far are not to full size and I hope to move all to larger tank once constructed and set up. Guessing May(ish)


Any opinions on what I should do?I wish to use my 20 gallon to seed my larger tank when built, so I don't want to introduce a large population of bristle worm if possible.

[LostMind]

Whats wrong with bristleworms?

Everything I have read about them says they are a vital part of your clean up crew. Your tank will sustain as many bristleworms as there is food for them, so unless you are doing something wrong, they shouldn't overrun the tank.

I even bought bristleworms from saltwaterconnection when I made an order there. I would be happy as a monkey in a banana tree if I saw bristleworms come on my rock.

But I am strange ;)

[Scavenger]

Whats wrong with bristleworms?

Everything I have read about them says they are a vital part of your clean up crew. Your tank will sustain as many bristleworms as there is food for them, so unless you are doing something wrong, they shouldn't overrun the tank.

I even bought bristleworms from saltwaterconnection when I made an order there. I would be happy as a monkey in a banana tree if I saw bristleworms come on my rock.

But I am strange ;)

???? :eek: :eek: Whoo maybe I should read some more, all I have read lists them as a no no, bad thing, slash, reef pest. I'm quite new to reefing and have only others knowledge to draw on. If bristlworms are a benefit to the reef system, I would like to learn more. I could see them doing a cleaning job , but from what I've read, I thought they also ate coral fish and occational crustation.

Gee wizz I'm really starting to enjoy the challenges of reefing and I have a growing respect for those who have accumulated and share their knowledge in this area. I wonder though, how many would be reefers gave up before they had the internet to draw information from.

[golden69_ca]

i dont know how many people on the board go out and get books but a good investment is Reef invertebrates well worth it and it has a great section on worms .

[BCOrchidGuy]

There are some harmful bristleworms but in my opinion the pink/brown ones are fine, as long as they don't over run your tank then they just look ugly. Don't overfeed, and their numbers will stay in check.

Doug

[Aquattro]

Unless the worm is 3 feet long and eating things you'd rather it didn't, they are fine. I go to great lengths to get bristle worms in my tank...awesome cleanup crew.!!

[LostMind]

yah, the book reef inverts is where I found out that bristleworms are good.

Some people thought bristleworms were nasty critters because they ate the stuff that died. So people thought the bristleworms killed the dead animal, when it is very likely that the critter just died and the bristleworms are just doing their cleanup job :)

[smokinreefer]

yeah, id say keep em... they are great for a clean up crew...
now having said that... since ive never had a problem of not having enough of them... i seem to get bristles stuck in my fingers everytime i pick up a rock from my tank... then the worms seem to accidently drop in my toilet! oops! :lol: i just cleaned one of my return pumps and i found a bunch of em living in the pump housing! :eek:

when my buddies would come over they would always look around my tank and wait for the big suckers to start crawling around! :lol:

when i catch big ones i usually toss them... if there is a demand, i could sell them to you guys!! hahahha seriously though if you guys want them, i can let you know when i have caught a few big ones and you can come pick them up!

[EmilyB]

Bristleworms - It's a good thing... :mrgreen: :razz:

[slylie]

sell them.

:biggrin:

[Scavenger]

Well with the responses I'm getting here, I think I might just wait and see how the tank develops now.

If they are good for the cleanup crew, I assume detrius is there main food source. Is that correct? It would be nice to see a cleaner tank bottom!

[Aquattro]

I assume detrius is there main food source. Is that correct?

yes

[BCOrchidGuy]

No offence.. but.. they're great .. "Scavengers"....

Doug

[Scavenger]

No offence.. but.. they're great .. "Scavengers"....

Doug :lol: :lol: :lol:

[BCOrchidGuy]

Seriously, if something dies in your tank you may never see it again, they'll clean it up quick. I've not seen them go after snails, they tend to pull away quickly from anything that gets to close. One thing to remember though, they can cause a sting so don't grab them with your bare hand.

Doug