A Polychaete Word of Caution

[naesco]

Originally Posted by zoaElite

I will grab photos tonight when the lights are off to see If anyone can ID them as fireworms, so far so good in the new tank.

Naesco is it possible that the bristle worms are simply irritating the zoas to death? I'm not talking like 2-3 worms per colony @ night I'm talking like 10-12 and a few large ones. The bristles of the worm break of really easy and man do they hurt!

Sebae again I have seen my wrasses eat them during the day but the numbers are far to high to be biologically controlled. Besides all my fish sleep at night, the worms only come out when its pitch black so we have timing issues .

Zoaelite all of us that have established tanks will have tonnes of bristle worms. They can devour a small dead fish overnight with no trace. What attracts them is dead, decaying tissue or matter.
Most of us have a zoa here and there and if one of them gets sick and dies it is another lost coral with no explanation.
But a specialty tank like yours that is covered in stunning beautiful coloured zoas would allow a disease to spread easily.
Yes it is possible that dead, decaying zoa that attract bristle worms could also cause inadvertent bristle damage to some healthy polyps.
But, the problem is the determining the cause of death and doing something to stop it and not the bristle worms.

If it is disease you will have to be strong and remove most of the polyps in each colony leaving only the guaranteed healthy ones and keep them as far apart from each other.
Look for a chemical or drug solution that you could use as a dip.
Does anyone have any ideas?
If I can find something I will let you know. sorry!