Whats everyones take on Bristle Worms?

[LConte17]

Do you like them in your tank or would you rather not have them in there?


I have a few of them, some tiny baby ones, some that are like 1" long. one guy keeps telling me to get rid of them, while a few tell me to leave them in there.


I also have these thing that look like bugs in my tank, real tiny, cept for 1. which i think are pods but im unsure. they kinda look like tiny ass shrimp, and crawl along the rock work etc. i cant get a good photo of them to post.

 

[UnderwaterWorld]

If they are small I would keep them until they get un-sightly

that sounds like pods to me which is a good sign

 

[Bifferwine]

Bristleworms are some of the best cleaners you can have in your tank. Leave them in. They will do a great job of keeping your sandbed and rockwork clean of detritus. Those bug things sound like pods to me too. Check out Melev's Reef - Visual Identification to try to ID the pods.

 

[LConte17]

Bristleworms are some of the best cleaners you can have in your tank. Leave them in. They will do a great job of keeping your sandbed and rockwork clean of detritus. Those bug things sound like pods to me too. Check out Melev's Reef - Visual Identification to try to ID the pods.

ok well that helped ID them as amphipods

 

[Oscarsdad608]

When I first started I put an arrow crab in my tank to kill them. I would never do that again.

 

[hotimportknight]

I bought little colony of zoos with some really nice colors a while back at a fish store on a trip, the guy threw in an even smaller piece for free of fire and ice zoos, the polyps were very small compared to most i've seen, and one day they started disappearing, at night i saw bristleworms covering the piece of rock, the next day there wasnt a spec on it... They wouldnt eat live zoos would they? They must have been dead or dieing for some reason right? The other piece with larger polyps is doing great yet, just those small ones died off quickly...

 

[yote]

Like Biff said,Bristtle worms are great additions to your clean up crew.
Theres no telling how many lives in my tank.

Cory,
I've heard people say that they eat corals and fish.Mines never touched anything that wasnt dead.

 

[reeffreak]

As long as the bristleworms are small they are fine in my system.If I ever find those foot long ones than those have to go.

 

[LConte17]

Well all my bristle worms are like 1/2 to 1 inch right now...


and i might need to bottle up some amphipods, cause there are TONS now... the entire side of the false wall on my solana are lined with amphipods

 

[Bifferwine]

It's widely believed that bristleworms will only eat stuff that is sick, dead or dying. There are, however, tons of species of bristleworms and a few of them are said to eat living, healthy things. The odds that you have one of the worms of those species is pretty low.

 

[SSalty]

If I could have a choice of not having them in my tank, I would not have any. I am not a big fan any large worms/snakes/spiders. Just not for me. IMO, there are other less "creapy" inhabitants that can eat ditrius. Call me a wimp, I don't care, haha.

 

[Oscarsdad608]

Wimp.

 

[fishbait]

I leave mine alone. like other have said, when they get big, and I see one of them, I'm yanking it out.

 

[Oscarsdad608]

I never see any unless I move stuff off the bottom.

 

[yote]

The only way I'll even yank a big bristle(over 4 inches) worm out of my tank,is if I see it eatting something it shouldnt be.
As long as they behave,they can get as big as they want to.

 

[fatman]

I agee with Yote. In over at least 15 years I have only had to get rid of two I can remember, both were around 10 inches and would knock over frags and small colonies.