Bristle Worms good or bad?

Ok I would like to get everyones general opinion on Bristle Worms.

I have done about 4 hours worth of research including many internet websights and calling many various fish stores and I have got no clear outlook on if they are good or bad.

On one hand they are horrible to have because they become oppurtunistic predators, but I watch some in my tank all the time and they move awefully slow so there only true prey are sea anemones and clams or very retarded or slow moving fish. I asked around and they said there are so many kinds of bristle worms that it is hard to actually get the kind that are the ones that are dangerous. The ones I have when very small are a reddish color with white bristles, the ones when they get larger about 4-5inches long are greyish and have white bristles. Are these the bad kind? I constantly remove the big ones because it really worries me. They reproduce constantly in the aquarium so getting rid of all of them is almost impossible I am told.

The other outlook I have gotten on them is that they are extremely helpful to the aquarium. I talked to the fish store and they said they have had clams in this one tank for many years and nothing has attacked it. They said they have probably thousands of bristle worms for all they know in the tank. I try to keep the smaller ones because I notice them eating fish waste off the sand and cleaning everything in the tank.

Should I be worried about the bristle worm populus or should I just keep doing what I am doing, I am a tad worried because when my moonlights were on I looked near one of my corals and one looked like a centipede it was so big! I waited for him to come back out but he never did.

 

My opinion is that they are a beneficial part of the CUC..to a point. I don't stress over the smaller ones as long as what I'm looking at is definately a BW. I leave them in my DT up to about 2 inches and if they haven't starved out I'll start setting a DIY tube trap I made and get them out that way or I'll suck them up with a turkey baster if I get the chance. But I still don't kill them. I put the bigger ones in my sump and fuge.
Since thier population is relative to the amount of food available I really don't see that many in my tank but I have 2 pretty good sized ones I just saw under a rock in my fuge.

 

I am afraid you will find that most people have differing opinions on Bristleworms, much like your research. Some feel that are great assets and others try to get rid of them. I have never had any corals affected by Bristleworms but I do feel they may have contributed to a clam death I had (many people disagree with me on this). I would watch them and if you feel they are a problem here is what I do to weed down the population:

Take a piece of shrimp and place in some panty hose. Weigh down to the bottom and check in the morning. Their bristles get stuck in the hose. The first time I did this, I must of caught 20+, including a monster 6.5 inch.

I do feel for the most part they are beneficial.

 

that must have been one nasty sight. soooo uhhhh where are the pics of this, i wanna see

 

one thing to think of, good or bad. a spike in population is a sign of a nutrient problem. think of it like algae. do you just remove the algae??? or do you get rid of its "food".

i was kinda worried about a large population in my tank. i was separately trying to lower nitrates. once i got my nitrates down most of the worms disappeared. i still see some once in a while. nothing like it was

 

Yea the clam thing that I hard about was that they burrow into them and eat them from the inside out but another thing I heard was that they will eat a clam if it is dieing.

 

I dont see hundreds of them but I see atleast one every night, and maybe 3 or 4 tiny tiny red ones every other week

 

I can almost bet you the tiny tiny red ones are not bw but a type of annelid more related to earthworms. Do you seen them burrowing in the sand along the glass?

 

Very true. I would import and cure LR 10,000 pounds at a time. I've only seen Eunicid worms less than 10 times.

, Typical Bristleworm

Fireworms are also bristleworms....when you touch one, it not only hurts like a splinter, it also burns like a bee sting.

Good Plan

If they are reproducing that often, you're overfeeding your tank. It's funny. When moonlights first started being used in the hobby, people were all in a panic about "those crazy swimming worms". I have to admit, the first time I saw an epitoke I thought it was pretty crazy. Epitokes are how polychaetes reproduce and they only do it at night.

They eat carrion. It's extremely rare for them to attack anything that is still alive. The only situation where I would see that happening is if you had a very large worm that couldn't find enough food in your tank so it had to attack live animals.

I don't worry about bristleworms. Their population is self-limiting. If there's a lot of food, they'll reproduce. As soon as the food level goes down, their population lowers. They're awesome detrivores and I consider them a part of a clean up crew. In fact I've even paid for them before.

 

I think I might try that Panty Hose thing tonight with a piece of Silver Side, I heard they absolutly love that!