Reef nutrition

Do I have Bristle worms?

Iceman

Iceman

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Hey guy, recently got a colony of Xenia’s and I was looking at it and observed this centipede looking thing. I tried to grab it with my players but it receded. Any guess on what it is? Are they harmless? Found another one on another rock.
 

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Gross. I’m not looking at this anymore.
Does it have to be in the tank?
I think we should see who can capture the biggest one by mass. They can stretch out really long and thin.
 
I have way too many bristleworms. You don’t see them just looking at the tank, but they are hiding everywhere. I know they technically aren’t bad for reef tanks and are considered good CUC, but I get stung by them regularly when I’m doing maintenance/fragging. Basically at risk every time I grab anything. I’ve been actively removing them with a modified version of sand siphoning, and routinely get a substantial harvest, enough to fill maybe half a 16 oz deli cup once a month. I consider it a significant part of my nutrient export.
 
JVU said:
I have way too many bristleworms. You don’t see them just looking at the tank, but they are hiding everywhere. I know they technically aren’t bad for reef tanks and are considered good CUC, but I get stung by them regularly when I’m doing maintenance/fragging. Basically at risk every time I grab anything. I’ve been actively removing them with a modified version of sand siphoning, and routinely get a substantial harvest, enough to fill maybe half a 16 oz deli cup once a month. I consider it a significant part of my nutrient export.
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Have you tried a trap?
 
I guess I will be the odd one here. I actually do not like these worms and consider them pests... I rather use sea cucumbers like the tiger tail to do good sand cleaning job.
These worms while usually harmless, they can be problematic to sand placed items like clams and small inverts. They bite, hard to catch, and if they reproduce to be in mass, it's very very hard to control the population.
Also I personally believe that their value is overrated, unless there is alot of them, I do not think they really move the needle in term of sand cleaning since thay are scavengers and tiny... look at what one sea cucumber do to sand over night...these are true cleaners..:))
But again, am the odd one here..
 
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ofzakaria said:
I guess I will be the odd one here. I actually do not like these worms and consider them pests... I rather use sea cucumbers like the tiger tail to do good sand cleaning jobe.
These worms while usually harmless, they can be problematic to sand placed items like clams and small inverts. They bit, hard to catch, and if they reproduce to be in mass, it's very very hard to control the population.
Also I personally believe that their value is overrated, unless there is alot of them, I do not think they really move the needle in term of sand cleaning since thay are scavengers and tiny... look at what one sea cucumber do to sand over night...these are true cleaners..:))
But again, am the odd one here..
Click to expand...

Most of us don't 'like" them, but just figure they are going to end up- in our tanks anyway.
 
Bruce Spiegelman said:
Most of us don't 'like" them, but just figure they are going to end up- in our tanks anyway.
Click to expand...
Yeah I definitely don’t like them, but they gotta be eating stuff to reproduce and grow like they do. I’ve never considered the good at cleaning sand. Maybe the surface, but that would be it. They definitely get into nooks and crannies of rocks that other things besides maybe brittle stars and pods can’t.
 
My neon dotty back kills off all my bristle worms. I’ve seen it do it. Highly recommend those guys to a tank that can handle the “aggressiveness“ of them. Mines been a model citizen.

I just swapped over my tank and touched every rock. Not a single bristle worm sting.

I still have some here and there, but no where near as many as before.
 
Bruce Spiegelman said:
Have you tried a trap?
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Yeah, I’ve tried several traps that don’t work well. I made my own, which does work well- I started a thread describing it last year. But just removing a ton of them manually when I clean the sand is easiest for me.

Really nothing works as well as another animal that eats them since they work all day. I don’t have a lid so my fish options are limited. I have other inverts that supposedly eat them like coral banded shrimp, but don’t make a dent.
 
My Arrow Crab and Boxing Shrimp have taken care of our Bristleworm situation - I hardly ever see one now, whereas before them, we would see 10-15 of them at a time crawling in the rubble.
 
Rostato said:
My neon dotty back kills off all my bristle worms. I’ve seen it do it. Highly recommend those guys to a tank that can handle the “aggressiveness“ of them. Mines been a model citizen.

I just swapped over my tank and touched every rock. Not a single bristle worm sting.

I still have some here and there, but no where near as many as before.
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I have heard of another type of dottyback eating them, forget which one. I’ve only ever seen the neons be assholes. Good to know they can at least serve a purpose. I go with royal gramma 11 times out of ten over neon dottyback since they look very similar but I’ve never seen the grammas be a problem.
I’ve wanted an orchid dottyback for awhile. Wonder if they would chomp em down too?
 
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