Bristol Worm Question

[lex_lutha111384]

Hey everyone. I am a little concerned about my tank. I spend every waking minute taking care of this reef tank, and its inhabitants, but as everybody knows, having a big fat bristol worm hitchhike its way into your reef can be inevitable. Anyways, i shined a light in my tank the other night too see if I could see anything out of the ordinary, and to my suprise I saw a big *ss BW!!!!! Im almost posotive it is not a fireworm, because it does not have that bright red coloration to it. It is more pink with its typical pain in the *ss bristles. So i need some pointers on how I can get rid of this thing. I know that BWs are not as bad as everyone thinks, but this one has got too go. Its big and i dont like it in there. I was hoping someone had a real good idea for a homeade trap i could make. Thanks

 

[afsportsguy000]

Tweezers, or I had a Coral Banded Shrimp that would eat them

 

[s_kelley]

Grab w tweezers and pull slow cause they break off easy

 

[lex_lutha111384]

i have a yellow banded coral shrimp, but i think this worm would do what the anaconda did to Owen Wilson in that movie!

 

[Overlook reef]

You could use a worm tube or nylon stocking and put food in it. The worms bristles get caught in the stocking and you can pull it out with the worm attached.

I used the worm tube and it worked great.

 

[lex_lutha111384]

Is the worm tube something I can buy at any lfs?

 

[Turbosnail]

Is the bristle worm causing any problems such as bothering corals or fish? If not then why worry about it. It will eat all of the detritus in the rocks and sand. I have one in the return section of my sump that has to be 9"+ long and there are two fish in there also.

 

[lex_lutha111384]

Is the bristle worm causing any problems such as bothering corals or fish? If not then why worry about it. It will eat all of the detritus in the rocks and sand. I have one in the return section of my sump that has to be 9"+ long and there are two fish in there also.

hes not bothering anything that i know of, but i have read that they can spawn like crazy when they get big. Is that true, and should i be worried?

 

[dad300]

One of my last tanks had lots of bristleworms.. very cool animals.. they did a mass spawn one night.. tank was milky white for about 10 minutes... between the fish, crabs, and all the other cleanup crew.. not much was left..
definately didn't cause me any issues... corals that I had at the time loved it too!

 

[newenglandreef]

I got a little stung by one under a coral the other day, finger went a little numb. Whatever you do, be careful and wear gloves if possible. They can ruin your "thumb wars" game for a while.

 

[jrock413]

I had a few bigger bristle worms in my tank 8" plus and they where really messing with my carpet nem and frogspawn to the point the nem was all closed up and did a few walk abouts. Anyway i bought the bristle worm trap and its a piece of junk i only caught one bristle worm and when i lifted it up out of the sand the bristle worm squeased thro the entrance and peaced out. Don't waste the $12 the nylon and raw shrimp method is the way to go for sure just wrap a piece of raw uncooked shrimp in a stocking and i make a few cuts into the stocking so there was more area that the worms could get stuck too the first night i had 4 good sized worms attached i then left it out in the sun and the worms shrunk up and dries out so it was easy to reuse again

 

[joelg]

hes not bothering anything that i know of, but i have read that they can spawn like crazy when they get big. Is that true, and should i be worried?

from what I have read the population is really controlled by the amount of food available
if someone was to have an abundance of worms it probably is related to overfeeding
a few worms in normal in most reef systems most people don't like them because of the creepy factor

 

[danzig]

I would say leave him, they really don't cause any harm. Assuming you have the normal BWs with the middle of the body being kind of purple right? How big is this worm? (don't exaggerate). They are good they eat lots of detritus and nasty stuff in the tank. I would love to have a couple big BWs in my tank. Mine are all like 1-2'' ; (

 

[lex_lutha111384]

you can have mine!!!haha My fiance said she saw one that was about six inches long and a few tiny ones. She thinks she saw another different looking one around 6 in. as well, but i think that it might have been the same one.