Bristle worms everywhere

I don't want any alarms to go off for posting here, but I do have a problem. I bought a 20 gallon setup from someone on craigslist on Sat. I got it all running but noticed there were a few bristle worms in the tank. I know that some are ok so I didn't think too much. I took a few out Sat. night (the big ones) and left the rest. I made a DIY trap and I heard about
on the garf website and while I was making it last night decided to quickly turn the room light on to see what I could see.

To my dismay there were what seems to be hundreds of worms (fire, bristle, some flat). It reminded me of Indiana Jones near the end with all the snakes writhing over each other. I thought the trap would work, but for hundreds there must be a better answer.

I have moved all the other living creatures into my Nano (6gal) and am thinking about dipping the rock in freshwater. I have heard bristles hate it and will come right out. Any thoughts on this approach? I'll be doing it like one rock a night to make sure I don't kill all good bacteria in the whole tank.

 

Your tank is a bit small for a fish introduction to eat themone by one and i know how many dreams you would make come true for certain fish lol.

You could go to the extreme of picking them out with pliers if worst comes to worst. Not sure of any other approach.

Breed

 

Yeah! It depends. Please take into account you are going to wipe out lots of things (beneficial) that colonized your rock. After fresh water dip you may find your coralline algae giving very intensive red fluorescence, that indicates their death! Have you tried a stocking + fresh shrimp meat method ?!

 

Just your post makes me "squirmy."

I would trap out what you can --- then look into a good worm predator...

Here is great article on subject:
(About.com)

Bad Type Bristleworms Control​

Ways to Prevent and Remove Infestations​

Remove them by hand using tweezers or a net when you see them.

Buy a bristleworm trap, or make your own.
Use a baited nylon stocking.

Introduce a natural predator of these worms into the aquarium, such as a Dottyback, Wrasse of the Halichoeres family, Bird Wrasse (Gomphosus varius), Maori Wrasse (Cheilinus oxycephalus), Sunset Wrasse (Thalassoma lutescens), Coral Banded Shrimp (Stenopus hispidus) or Arrow Crab (Stenorhynchus setrcornis).

Severe Infestation Solution ​

Although this problem is not likely to occur if the worms are removed when found, if your aquarium is overwhelmed by a severe bad type, or even a beneficial type bristleworms infestation, such as with those of the Eurythoe genus, you can quickly reduce the population by cleaning up the substrate and rocks. Here is what you can do.

Only remove small portions of the aquarium substrate at a time and either:
Spread it out on a plastic sheet, then sieve through the media by hand and pick the worms out using tweezers.

Place the substrate in a plastic container partially filled with saltwater, and stir it around. The worms should come up from the media each time this is done and be in the water portion of the container where they can be scooped out. A fine meshed fish net works well for this.

Remove the rocks one at a time and follow the rock cleaning procedure outlined under the "Preventative Measures" section above.


Tip: It is advised to always wear a pair of gloves of some kind when dealing with Fireworms to avoid coming into contact with their stinging bristles.

Tip: Whenever working with live substrate media and rocks in the open air, it is best to keep it moist, which can be done by using a spray bottle filled with saltwater to dampen it.


Good Luck!

 

Great!!! Now I'm hungry for some spaghetti...

 

One of the ways I got rid of some of them was to take each piece of rock and put them into a 5gal bucket. Then tie the rock with string and suspend it just below the surface of the water. After a day or two I then toss some pellet food into the bottom of the 5gal bucket. The worms at that time are so hungry that they reach off the rock and fall to the bottom to get the food with no way to return to the rock. After a week or 2 depending on how it goes your rock will be in much better shape. Plus this is always fun and amazing to see what you find every day.

 

arrow crabs love bristle worms, tastes good

 

you can just do a combonation of them all pull some out but a coral banded sixline wrasse or watever else eats those damn things and you can suspend the rock elminate probably like 99% of them with all that combined.

 

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I like the rock and bucket idea. I might try that tomorrow. I had a bucket I was using when I pulled out the first 50. I was using chopsticks to pull them out, but might change to some tongs or something easier to use.


I made a pvc trap. It was gluing last night and I will try it tonight to see if I get any. All of these are great ideas. I'll only do the freshwater dip as a last resort. They really hate freshwater.