bristle worms

[davidsea]

I have seen about 15 -20 of them in my 40 gal. reef tank among the rocks and sand .Is this o.k. or should I get rid of them, and if so how????:iamwithst

 

[mr_X]

it's just a sign that you are overfeeding. you don't need to get rid of them, but it would be a good idea to cut back on feeding.
cut back on feeding, and you'll see less and less of them.

 

[anthony27]

alot of people have different views of them.


1. Dont touch them they sting and it hurts.
2. They are not bad they eat the stuff in the sand.

You could buy a 6 line wrass and it will eat them, so I was told I dont see my six line eat them.

Good Luck, off chance what are you feeding that you feed alot. :bablefish

 

[ESSELO]

they are beneficial in that they eat detritus but can be harmful because they reproduce rapidly, and can infest the tank. i had an oyster that they devoured over night. they may eat some softies as well. introducing some natural predators such as arrow crabs or a six line wrasse helps keep their numbers in check.

 

[basiab]

Some sites charge $2 a piece for them.

 

[mr_X]

they are beneficial in that they eat detritus but can be harmful because they reproduce rapidly, and can infest the tank. i had an oyster that they devoured over night. they may eat some softies as well. introducing some natural predators such as arrow crabs or a six line wrasse helps keep their numbers in check.

they devoured the oyster because it was already on it's way out. they do not eat coral unless it's failing. again, they only reproduce rapidly when there is an abundance of food.
no predators are necessary. good tank husbandry will keep them in check.

 

[mray]

People will tell you that bristle worms are beneficial because they eat detritus and stir up your sand but bristle worms release waste themselves. The ones that dwell in your sand will release their waste inside your sand. The problem with this is that over time the waste does build up and when the sand build is disturbed, it is all released back into your water.

 

[SevTT]

You could buy a 6 line wrass and it will eat them, so I was told I dont see my six line eat them.

I've never actually seen it eat any, but since I put my six-line in, sometimes I'll see bits of bristleworm floating around the tank. I still have a nice healthy population of them, though, so it's not doing too much damage.

 

[SevTT]

People will tell you that bristle worms are beneficial because they eat detritus and stir up your sand but bristle worms release waste themselves. The ones that dwell in your sand will release their waste inside your sand. The problem with this is that over time the waste does build up and when the sand build is disturbed, it is all released back into your water.

Meh, as does every other worm and copepod and amphipod in your tank. Something eats, poops, something eats the poop, poops -- I think that there was a study that showed that the average piece of food in the ocean gets recycled like 12 times. Nutes that go into making bristleworms don't go into your water.

Getting rid of bristleworms isn't going to significantly change the waste-management dynamics of your tank much -- except bigger chunks of stuff will tend to fester unless you've got some other scavengers to take up the slack.

 

[mray]

You're right, everything does get recycled. Who's the last in this recycling circle though? Bacteria.

When bacteria is created in the water column, it's fine because it can be skimmed out. When there is a dense population under your sand, they become anaerobic. If you disturb the sand bed, you will cause a die off and your tank will experience an ammonia spike.