Forums

[wildreef]

Bristle worms are very hardy and tough to be rid of in any system
( although they do us a service in our tanks but should be kept in check )
Over feeding will make them breed prolificly .
As far a *shelf life* on a bristle worm go's they can with stand seveer
conditions, as long as they stay wet ( not dry out ) , they can live for considerible time in rock/sand with out eating.
If you wish to rid your self of some thats in the rock and you haveit out any way.
You can dip the rock in either high salinity say like 1.040 or more ( make a bucket up of it ) or you can fresh water dip and slaush the rock around in it the bucket , ( they'll start running and coming out of the rock and drop right in the bottom of the container ).
Also if you try to pull on them , they will become steadfast and they expand and throw their bristles out, making it almost impossible to to "pull" them out of the rock and usealy resulting in breaking them .
Then congrats ! you now have 2 worms to contend with.

Care should be taken and use protective gloves, they do have a nasty sting to them.

Funny how the most unwanted and undesirable pests can live and are harder than hell to be rid of aint it .