Bristleworms

I have never had any problems with them personally, maybe someone else will chip in. But in my opinion, they are a very useful member of the CUC.

You probably have hundreds in your tank.

If you want to thin out their population, take some frozen food and put it in the toe of a nylon. Then throw it in your tank. The bristle worms will get stuck in the nylon and you can pull them out.

I personally have not tried this, as I think that they are a great addition to the CUC. But I also have not seen one the diameter of a pencil in my tank either!!!!!!!!

i believe hey hitched a ride on my LR but i just started seeing them about 4 months after putting them in the tank and ive heard they are too big of a deal until they get large

+1 BJ... they are a great member of your CUC.

Even the large ones arent an issue. People just think they are ugly and confuse them fireworms so they get a really bad rap. In actually they super members of your CUC as mentioned. But i do not suggest touching them, it kinda hurts and some people have had bad allergic reactions.

I think the three best populations in my CUC are my bristle worms, my stomatellas and my asterinas.

All of which were hitchhikers

bristleworms are asexual and will multiply as they see fit to eat up all the crap from your tank once they have fed on all the crap they see they will start dying off ,the worst case of cristle orms (and unfortunately the demise of my 75G tank, was when hurrican ike hit as soon as the power went out after an hour i started loosing fish and as they were dying the bristleworms were multiplying just as fast eating everything they saw dead tbh if it werent for them the house woulda stunk 100x worse than it did while we were moving the tank outside i will say at the end of us getting rid of all the water and taking the tank outside what used to be a 3" sandbed was now literraly a 3" bed of bristleworms some as long as about 2 feet and as fat as a sharpie ..... not trying to scare you lol really im not, just saying a very helpful CUC member but the more crap you have in your tank as far as die off the more they will reproduce but if you dont have die off theyt will stay under control , they never bothered corals or anything alive

geez long story sry i got carried away

They are harmless, and great cleaners of your rock and sand.

I agree...harmless. For the first year or so I was overfeeding like crazy. How can you say no to a pair of clowns that come up wagging thier tails begging for food..lol. I went from a couple to a couple hundred in that time. I cut WAY back on the food and in a few months most of them were gone. Latex gloves without the powder on them are priceless. If you do get stuck by one try slowly pouring white vinegar over the bristles and the will disolve and take a lot of the itch away. I'll see if I can find a pic of one of my rocks after about a year and you'll understand why I swear by the latex gloves.