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]

Originally Posted by BlueWorldAquatic

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...