Bristleworms good????

I been reading a lot of threads in here and people sure like them bristleworms, when I first got in this hobby about 15 years ago, the bristleworm was a hated nuisance, and then I was a member was a forum with a lot of talk on how to get rid of them, I still have 2 old bristleworm traps. Is there like good and bad bristleworms or did someone discover something new and beneficial about them?

 

They are good detritus eaters and cleaner uppers of leftover food.

 

Most of what I hear is good. But I have seen stories of them eating softies and such.

 

General consensus - good. They help keep the tank clean.

 

they are good to a point if you have acans and zoas, lps, they can keep them from opening, they will live under the coral and come out at night and even if they don't mean to they are painful to the coral irritate the coral. some will deny this but i tell you what i know from first hand, seeing is believing. if you pick them from under the coral the coral will survive so no permanet damage. i still have a pile of them but when a coral doesn't open i lift it and there he will be.

 

I just found one in my tank even though i accidentally cured my LR for 12 hours before putting it in. Actually kinda cool to know that something somehow made its way into the tank. Really colorful too

 

Hermodice, Pherecardia are bad types of fireworms. They will eat coral, etc. The bristle worms most people talk about are great in my opinion. I had a fish get stuck in some rocks when I was gone for a week and they ate the fish, which saved a very bad situation.

 

They "irritated" some of my mushrooms to death just last week. I'm done with them & want every last one out of my tank. Yesterday.

 

turn off your lights and all flow and feed (Use a Red light to observe them as they won't detect you or hide), and you'll see ALL the bristleworms come out!

I did that one night and was amazed how many I have in the tank. But its a stable tank over a year old no issues... So live and let live I guess?

Sucks cleaning my filter and getting stung by one though.

 

hahaha! just don't know what to think about those things, once in a LFS I seen a 55gal tank and the substrate looked like it was half crushed coral and half bristleworms, I never seen such a bad infestation, wouldn't like a sea cucumber do the same thing as people claim the bristleworms do?