Bristleworms

So I have noticed many many many more common bristleworms in my tank recently than ever before ( only 6 months old). It started where I would see one here and there but now it seems everytime I picked up a piece of coral or a rock there are always multiple worms bristleworms on the bottom!

Will there numbers self limit? Is having them reproduce so readily in my tank a sign of poor maintenance or anything?

 

It is a sign of over abundance of food. Limit the available food source and the numbers will decline.

 

It's not a 'bad' thing IMO. I try and relate my bristle worms to homeless people...."If you feed them, they will come"

 

Thats the funny thing, I do not feed very much very often. I feed once a day enough to be gobbled up within a few minutes and often skip days to encourage natural picking of foods. I dose a heavy dose of Rods once a week or so to allow the corals to gather food in addition to the fish and all the inverts.

I never really clean the rockwork well so maybe its just the slow accumilation of food.

 

The heavy dosing of Rods is what is doing it. I feed Rods to my corals and cut back because of the population of Bristle Worms. They will eat every tiny microscopic piece. I doubt you will find any food within the rocks just a lot of detritus.

 

If it helps, I have lots of the little guys like you do, and they never bother any of my corals. I was told Banded coral shrimp eat them, but I wouldn't do it personally, since like Cheryl explained, they eat all the tiny stuff around your tank, and are a good part of your CUC.

 

Bristle worms become a prime example of *to much of a good thing* very quickly. They can and will become a problem. Taking food from corals is #1. I've seen them crawl into the mouths of several of my own LPS and actually play tug-o-war with my cleaner shrimp for food.