How to remove Brittle Worms

Coral Commander

Coral Commander

Reefing newb
I have a rather large population of Brittle Worms in my tank and I would like to kill them all. I have a trap but I am finding it rather time tedious and time consuming to capture them. I find that they embed themselves in my rock. So far in the last six months I have managed to capture one large worm and one very small worm. I would like to know of any more efficient ways of killing them. Does anyone know of any water supplement that I can put in the tank that will kill them without killing my fish?
 
I don't know of any chemicals that would kill them, without harming your other inverts and corals. I do know the six line wrasse eat them...or else you can try the panty hose trick. Get a piece of panty hose, tie one end in a knot, place some meaty fish food inside it and place it close to the rocks at night. Their bristles get stuck in the panty house fibers and traps them. Good luck.
 
Stay away from chemicals man!! If you REALLY want those suckers gone...buy a "Wrasse" fish of some sort. The cheapest one that I know of is the "Six Line Wrasse" [$15]. They go hard on bristle worms. On second thought, Definitely get a six line because other wrasses will go after your clean up crew [Crabs,snails..etc]. Also, be careful that you're not overfeeding. Bristleworms depend on those leftover scraps that the fish dont get. Happy Hunting!!!
 
I would just get a six line also.. they are a nice little addition to a tank anyway.. constantly on the move darting in and out of the rocks..
 
Marines_Wife said:
I may be wrong here but isnt there a trap for those things?
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Yeah, there is a trap you can purchase, but why spend money on something that may or may not work, when you can get the same results with something that's probably lying around the house. Or only costs a dollar. :)
 
I find them to be a great addition to the biological diversity of my tank, any particular reason you want to remove them?
 
x19 said:
I find them to be a great addition to the biological diversity of my tank, any particular reason you want to remove them?
Click to expand...

I second that. At first i didnt like them but they do alot of cleaning.

As far as getting rid of them...everyone has you covered....
 
Overfeeding is probably the reason they are there in the first place. Cutting back on the food will work wonders. I went from what seemed like thousands to next to none in about 6 months.
 
They do come as a hitchhiker. You may have started with only a couple but given enough food they multiply like crazy.
 
I don't over feed and got quite a few of them. They like my Fire shrimp steal from my corals during feeding. I kinda just shoo them away.
 
I had no luck with a six line... ended up going with a lunar wrasse and altho he took out one of my snails he's since stuck to frozen and bristleworms...

as much as I HATE (and I mean with a BURNING passion) bristleworms you don't want to completely remove them from your tank, keep the feedings down, and you'll see less and less of them... also don't break em into piece-you'll just make more. As nasty as they look they are a good part of our tanks and its sorta like we're the ocean.... you really don't wanna remove one species because you don't like the looks of them.... as long as you don't touch them they aren't really doing any harm.... I'm SUPER allergic to any type of bite or sting and have been stung and had some nasty meds for a while-which shys me away from them (not to mention I had a HUGE nasty guy that i watched eat a fish :C)... traps don't really work :/ they get smart AND then can get outta most of the ones out there, i've tried em....

my lunar wrasse has been the best at taking care of my overload of them and I see maybe 5 or 6 at night-which is probably way less than normal but he helps keep the population in check and they clean up whatever the fish dont eat :)
 
I have had a Sixline Wrasse before and haven't noticed much difference. Also worth noting, I have rather large Bristleworms and I have read that Sixline's won't eat the larger worms.

The reason I don't like them, besides looking creepy, is that they have a tendency to steal food from Coral as well as damage them by burrowing into them. I am also not convinced that they aren't at least mildly hostile towards fish, even though I can't quite prove that yet.

I am really thinking of boiling the rocks in water to completely annihilate them all. It will come at a cost of killing beneficial bacteria but seems to be a safe alternative to chemicals for which I too tend to stay away from at all costs.

I am not too much worried about Bristleworms being a part of my cleanup crew since I have quite an extensive Brittlestar population that appears to be quite a bit less intrusive on my tank.
 
I have bristle worms in my tank also. Not huge ones but I see them sticking out of the rock from time to time. I just leave them. As far as I know they are beneficial and can work with your clean up crew at keeping tour tank clean. Of they aren't doing any harm them leave em. Why not? Just bc they may not be pretty doesn't mean they should be killed :( poor worms lol
 
Woops I didn't see your last post! Sorry lol if they are harming your corals then I guess you have no choice :)
 
Simply get a Pvc pipe, drill a couple holes in it(a bit bigger than your largest worm), put some shrimp in there, cap both sides, and put it into the tank. You want to do this at night time, when the lights are off(or the moonlights are on). The next morning you should have a good amount of your BW population PS: the pvc pipe should be about half the size of your tank and placed on your sandbed.
 

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