Bristle worm infestation!

[doch]

Is it odd that I have hundreds of bristle worms in my tank? I took the flash light to the tank last night, and everywhere I could shine, there were 2-3 of them. Should I be concerned? What eats them?

[born]

Not odd at all. Every tank has tons of them. You shouldnt be worried at all. I dont think its even possible to have a tank without them. My cousins tank use to have ones that were literally the size and thickness of a old school hb pencil.
I heard it is possible for them to eat fish, if they're big enough and the fish is small enough, maybe like a small sleeping clown goby? lol.
Arrow crabs take care of them and also maybe some wrasses? my cousin told me his sixline would eat the smaller ones if hungry enough.

[1eyedjyde]

I wouldn't be concerned unless they start to get overly large. They are basicly scavengers and eat any food your fish don't, so they do provide a sevice to your tank. Not sure what eats them but if you were to limit the amount of food they can attain, their population will decrease to match the new food supply.

[dsaundry]

Reduce your feeding, overfeeding your tank will cause bristle worm populations to go wild....

[BlueWorldAquatic]

coral banded shrimp, arrow crabs, melenerous wrasse'

[daniella3d]

I have so many of them, each time I put my zoanthids frags in peroxyde about 30 of them come out. They really anoy my zoanthids.

too many is too many. I am going to buy a trap.

[doch]

coral banded shrimp, arrow crabs, melenerous wrasse'

Perfect! I already have a Melanarus! Should get nice and fat!

[mike31154]

I've witnessed one of my cleaner shrimp take a small bristle worm. That was quite a while ago & I only saw it happen once, but he snagged that thing out of a crevice and wolfed it down.

[doch]

Excellent... just grabbed 2 of those too! I'm not really worried about the worms, but started thinking that they would be a good food source since there are so many of them. It works out really well that I already have a couple of things that should eat them!

[gobytron]

I used to really enjoy watching my old coral banded shrimp go to town on bristleworms...

IN fact, maybe it's time for another one of those guys...

[lastlight]

My royal gramma emerges from his nook every now and then with a full beard and I always get a good laugh (now that I know it's no big deal).

Come to think of it since getting a melanarus I don't see any emerge from the rockwork during feeding time. Lately the only I come across live in the small divot between the stream 2 pumps and the magnet mounts. Guaranteed to find one behind all 4 pumps every time I clean them.

[Madreefer]

My royal gramma emerges from his nook every now and then with a full beard and I always get a good laugh (now that I know it's no big deal).

Come to think of it since getting a melanarus I don't see any emerge from the rockwork during feeding time. Lately the only I come across live in the small divot between the stream 2 pumps and the magnet mounts. Guaranteed to find one behind all 4 pumps every time I clean them.

My potters wrasse had a facefull, even in an eye. Never ate after that and died. Just happened 2 weeks ago.

[gobytron]

how do you know it was from a bristleworm?
theres certainly many more potential candidates in your tank, no?...

[Madreefer]

how do you know it was from a bristleworm?
theres certainly many more potential candidates in your tank, no?...

'Cause when I grabbed on to a rock a while back that had a huge brisstle worm on or in it I had the same brisstles in my hand. What else would be in there to cause that?

[daniella3d]

a bristle worm for sure. I get those bristles in my fingers all the time and they are like glass needles. I can imagine that it is enough to cause a fish to become blind and stop eating or get an infection.

'Cause when I grabbed on to a rock a while back that had a huge brisstle worm on or in it I had the same brisstles in my hand. What else would be in there to cause that?

[boxfisher]

my cleaner shrimp will even eat the smaller ones that climb into his area