Bristle Worm

Hello everyone,

O.K. had a blonde attack and did something stupid, well it wasn't stupid at the time but I am paying for it now. Have a 90 gal tank my neighbor gave me, beautiful tank, had to basically break it down to sand in order to move it cause it was so heavy. Well the tank had bristle worms in it, like 5 of them, rather large. I have read both pros and cons so I decided to remove them. I hung the rock they were in upside down, they started coming out, got the tweezers the whole 9 yards. Anyway, need the rock for my aqua scape couldn't get one out and (here is the stupid part) picked it out with my hand. Not realizing the little @#% was going to put all these little *****ers in my hand. It was like a cactus, little fine quills. Well I immediately dropped the stupid worm, and tried to pull all these quills out, put vinegar on my hand because it was stinging and itching. Well 2 1/2 weeks later my hand still itches and has little bumps where I guess my body is trying to expel them out...what else can I do? It will wake me up in the middle of the night itching? Ideas? Thanks......

 

That is horrible! I've always heard not to touch them, never seen someone post about how it actually happened. I assume you've googled about this, if not I'd be doing that. Have you gone to the doctor?

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/wilderness_bristleworm_sting/article_em.htm

 

Vinegar, hydrocortizone cream and tylenol for the pain.
Welcome to 3reef by the way, though not a good way to post your initial thread.
Hopefully you can rectify this problem quickly...seems like a serious problem being stung by a bristle worm. Fortunately for me, I have never had that occur to me or anyone that I know.
Some corals, anemones, invertebrates and fish are packed with powerful toxins, chemical make-up/nematocysts that can pose serious risks and consequences to us if we let our guards down or are not knowledgeable regarding this fascinating hobby and the living animals associated with it.
Hope ya get better soon.
good luck with your tank and from now on...try to keep your hands out of the water...
heheheh

 

wow,I've held them before but never got stung!

 

I ALWAYS wear fish tank gloves now, after reading all the horror stories about all the toxic and poisonous things in a fish tank, and what they can do to the human body. Here are the glove I use. Aquarium Maintenance & Cleaning: Heavy Duty Aqua Gloves

 

yea I too have touch them and no ill affects. But in the future I don't think I will try to touch. Sorry about the stings.

 

Exactly as coral reefer said. Not much else you can do until your body works them out. If it continues too much longer, you may have to go see a doc (as much as I hate seeing the doc), as there is a slight chance your body may not be able to expel all of them.
And as stated before, you may want to do more research on what resides in your tank before you move/touch anything else in it. Its not like a time bomb waiting to go off, but there are some inherint risks that are associated with things that may be in your tank, least of which would be bristle worms

 

try using duck tape also. That might help get those suckers out.

 

Ouch. We are currently removing our bristle worms with a trap. We were fine letting only one be in there, but when 5 or 6 started popping up, we wanted them to go bye bye. Now, people say don't get rid of them blah blah blah they are excellent at cleaning up detritus and stuff. Well, they're making my CUC I payed for unemployed, so the things I didn't pay for get the sack. I have 3 brittle stars to feed!

The trap is amazing. Caught our first worm in 15 minutes. The smelly food drives the Nassarius snails nuts though. The want it, but have no chance of getting it. Poor guys.