Bristles on fish

mvallee

Non-member
This is a first for me, last night just before lights out something looked off with my Midas Blenny he was swimming up near the surface and when I looked closer he had a face full of bristles from a Bristle worm. Tough to get pictures as he would not stop swimming but you can see them a bit.
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Definitely not looking too happy. I saw he had a couple the other day but guess he did not learn his lesson.

Time to build one of those Bristle worm traps as they are getting out of control. I pulled some cheato out of my sump the other day and look at these two that were in it.

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Same coloration and bristles pattern as the one that got me a few weeks back and I am starting to think Fireworms now.

Is this unusual for a fish to get stuck like this? I've heard there are wrasses that will attack and eat them but how could they with those bristles?
I was thinking I might get a coral banded shrimp, I've read they are natural predators, just not sure how they would fare with my Sargassum trigger. The trigger so far has left all my Fire Shrimp alone and I still have plenty of Snails so thinking he is holding true to the more reef safe of the triggers
 
Does look like a fire worm. That shrimp tends to hide a lot during the day so it’ll most likely be safe and those triggers normally won’t bother anything since they’re main diet is plankton. Just keep him fed or something might end up as a snack :p
 
I just fed the tank and he appears to also have a mouth full too, He is swimming toward the food with his mouth wide open but not chomping at food like normal and can see all the bristles anong his mouth now too, Ugh I really like this fish not sure how he can survive this. Anyone see this and know if they will drop off on there own
 
Don’t know if there’s a way to add vinegar or citric acid to a bucket of tank water to melt them.Dont know how much of a ph drop a fish can tolerate without dying. Only other thing I can think of is physically removing them with tweezers
 
I had a blenny that liked to battle them when he found them in a hole he wanted to sit in. He had bristles on his head A LOT. Hopefully he manages.
 
I had a blenny that liked to battle them when he found them in a hole he wanted to sit in. He had bristles on his head A LOT. Hopefully he manages.
Thanks, good to know it happens and no long term effect. I am just going to let nature take its course on this one and see what happens
 
Boy he is looking pretty miserable, he was just smacking his face with his tail and then went and sat in the mushrooms.
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That was what happened to me two days ago, grabbed a rock and there was a worm under it.


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That was what happened to me two days ago, grabbed a rock and there was a worm under it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That sucks, happened to me a few weeks back, almost 2 weeks for the irritation and swelling to go away.

I also just noticed my Royal Gamma has a bunch in its face too, what's going on, time to get out the flame throwers and dynamite
 
Those photo look painful for the fish, yikes


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