Bristle worms...news to me

So I have this 14g BC that has been set up just over a month. The tank is sitting two feet from me on a stand next to my PC and I observe it a good 6-7 hours per day, sometimes more...i'm on my computer doing work, the tank is right there. Anyway, I can usually see bristle worms every other night before the lights go out and it is easy to take some tweezers and pull them out. However tonight I am up late checking out the house due to this super cold weather we are having and while I am up decide to see what is going on in the BC with a flashlight. I counted easily 10 worms crawling around...even on the back glass. Where there are 10, there are more.

So, are those plastic traps you can buy at the LSF worth it? I am not about to treat a 14g with chemicals (corals) so any suggestions would be great! I knew there were worms in there, I am aware of what they can do but I didn't know this little tank was housing so many.

Thanks for any info...

 

These are actually a decent addition to your clean up crew, I let them be in my tank. Most of the time you can’t see them anyway.

But, if you want to go fishing for them – yes, the traps work. You can also take a piece of ladies panty hose, put a piece of shrimp or whatever inside and scrunch it up and secure with a rubber band. Drop it in the tank at night, pull it out after a little bit (maybe an hour) and they will be on it.

 

Why do you want to remove them? They got a bad rap once upon a time by people who didn't know anything about them. However, the truth is that the ones in our tanks are actually just harmless detrivores, not predators. Probably more effective than snails, hermit crabs etc... So, I would keep them unless they creep you out or something...

 

The population of bristleworms is directly related to available food. Newer tanks tend to have higher populations as, the tank ages the population will self regulate and decline as long as there is not an abundance of food for them. Cool creatures, while ugly they serve as important part of the CUC.

 

Bristle worms are awesome and not even the ugliest part of my clean up crew. That distinction belongs to my cucumber.

please excuse wrong words, I posted this from my phone that auto "corrects."

 

the only way bristle worms are considered pests, is there are some that reach up to 8 inches long that can eat fish. but there are only several cases of that variety even entering ones aquarium and growing that big. mostly bristle worms are very beneficial and i wish i had some in my tank

 

This bristleworms is probably around 2 feet. They will only eat dead and decaying fish or inverts hence the reason they are such a good part of the CUC.
No harm will come to live fish, other than the occasional bristle. My arrow crabs is an effective bristleworm hunter and eater.

 

arrow crabs are too much like spiders for my liking

 

Wow that is a big bristle worm. What is it doing next to that goby(I think) though? Is it dead?

The biggest bristleworm I've seen in my tank was about 4 inches long. They do, do a great job as part of the CUC so I would not remove them, even in a smaller tank. They will self-regulate their population like others have said.

 

LOL

No the goby, bristleworm and pistol shrimp all live in the same burrow. I have had this worm for 3 years.