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do bristle worms eat live snails??
- Thread starter some'n'smellsfishy
- Start date
Bristle worms are very beneficial to your tank. This is a quote from a post on RC about bristle worms asked to Dr Ron.
...I saw one of these worms in the rocks that was at least 8" long. That's about as much of him as I could see, and I know that there was more of him.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE> They can get about 3x that length. </UL>
Hasn't this one reached the size where they are suppossed to be dangerous to the tank.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>They don't ever get dangerous to a tank. </UL>
Maybe this explains the unexplained demise of my hammer coral that was doing great then started to show up missing more and more tissue every morning.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>The worms have no way to bite off any flesh. If they are eating any thing it is already dead and decomposing and sort of "slurp" it up. If any thing was eating your coral, I would suspect animals such as peppermint or fire shrimp, which definitely eat polyps. </UL>
How do I get rid of this guy?
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>Don't. They are great scavengers and when they spawn they feed suspension feeders such as corals. </UL>
do any of the traps I have seen advertised work?
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>Haven't a clue. As these are amongst the most beneficial animals that can be found in a tank, I have never wanted to remove them. </UL>
Personally I have a couple that are over 10 inches long and would never get rid of them. I had an emerald crab die and was not able to get it out of my tank without tearing it apart. The night it died I watched tons of worms pick it clean. I have had snails die and other life in the tank and have never had a spike of toxins. Even a small Solomon island cuke died at some point and I saw no change in the tank. Never did figure out where it kicked the bucket.
Bristle worms(unless they are Caribbean fireworms) don't attack living species. They don't have mouths so they can't bite anything. Those particular fireworms are very rare in the hobby and I doubt you have one of these in your tank. For more info on bristle worms do a search here on Reefs and a search on RC. You will get tons of info and get those myths associated with worms dispelled.
[ July 12, 2001: Message edited by: DJ88 ]
...I saw one of these worms in the rocks that was at least 8" long. That's about as much of him as I could see, and I know that there was more of him.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE> They can get about 3x that length. </UL>
Hasn't this one reached the size where they are suppossed to be dangerous to the tank.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>They don't ever get dangerous to a tank. </UL>
Maybe this explains the unexplained demise of my hammer coral that was doing great then started to show up missing more and more tissue every morning.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>The worms have no way to bite off any flesh. If they are eating any thing it is already dead and decomposing and sort of "slurp" it up. If any thing was eating your coral, I would suspect animals such as peppermint or fire shrimp, which definitely eat polyps. </UL>
How do I get rid of this guy?
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>Don't. They are great scavengers and when they spawn they feed suspension feeders such as corals. </UL>
do any of the traps I have seen advertised work?
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>Haven't a clue. As these are amongst the most beneficial animals that can be found in a tank, I have never wanted to remove them. </UL>
Personally I have a couple that are over 10 inches long and would never get rid of them. I had an emerald crab die and was not able to get it out of my tank without tearing it apart. The night it died I watched tons of worms pick it clean. I have had snails die and other life in the tank and have never had a spike of toxins. Even a small Solomon island cuke died at some point and I saw no change in the tank. Never did figure out where it kicked the bucket.
Bristle worms(unless they are Caribbean fireworms) don't attack living species. They don't have mouths so they can't bite anything. Those particular fireworms are very rare in the hobby and I doubt you have one of these in your tank. For more info on bristle worms do a search here on Reefs and a search on RC. You will get tons of info and get those myths associated with worms dispelled.
[ July 12, 2001: Message edited by: DJ88 ]
DJ88,
Dr. Sheimek may not be right about everything, for I've seen a 12" bristleworm consume a freshly killed (ie not decomposing) Pseudochromis fridmani. The gritty sound that it made while "chewing" was distrubing, to say the least. Kinda ironic that a supposed polycheate consumer was being eaten by its prey.
Of course, there are an indefinate number of species (new ones literally discovered each day); to say all polycheates which aren't fireworms are beneign is a dangerous and inaccurate generalization.
[ July 12, 2001: Message edited by: Leonard ]
Dr. Sheimek may not be right about everything, for I've seen a 12" bristleworm consume a freshly killed (ie not decomposing) Pseudochromis fridmani. The gritty sound that it made while "chewing" was distrubing, to say the least. Kinda ironic that a supposed polycheate consumer was being eaten by its prey.
Of course, there are an indefinate number of species (new ones literally discovered each day); to say all polycheates which aren't fireworms are beneign is a dangerous and inaccurate generalization.
[ July 12, 2001: Message edited by: Leonard ]
as i mentioned b4, i definately saw my big bristleworm chase down and gobble up a live baby serpent starfish. the starfish wasnt dead nor decomposing. it was just very very small and able to fit nicely into the bristleworms mouth. Ive also seen my bristleworm munch up loads of hair algae and other type plants. ive never seen it bother coral or macro algae though. (my tank is almost 7 wks old).
do bristle worms eat live snails...where there are astrea snails on my live rock there seems to be a bristle worm near it??? i really haven't noticed my bristle worms coming out of the rock until i got the snails...
heres another question if bristle worms start to "overrun" your rock are they bad or still good...when can a bristle worm be dangerous?????
heres another question if bristle worms start to "overrun" your rock are they bad or still good...when can a bristle worm be dangerous?????
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