Bristle worms

[Jay6363]

Ok I'm sure this has been asked but at what point do bristle worms become a problem?

I literally have hundreds and hundreds of the that cover almost the whole bottom of the aquarium when I feed.......

They steal from corals ect..

I have a coral banded shrimp and wrasses to try to control but it's out of control lol


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[Zoanut]

I have never seen them in the population you have them in! Pics? You could siphon them out during feeding time, over a few weeks im sure that would make a dent. Does your wrasse even eat them?

 

[Jay6363]

Lol yeah it's crazy, I haven't seen them eat the worms. Tried even to feed the worms to corals..... Not successful

 

[Mr. E Wrasse]

Feed less your fish less food. The surplus is what's bolstering their population. They are good to have however in small quantities because they are scavengers. Even my clownfish eat them. If you see one craling out during the day, grab some tweezers, and put the worm at the top of your tank and let it fall down. I'm sure you can find one fish in your tank that eats them

 

[Reefing Madness]

Cut back on how much you feed and how often. They will die out will lack of nutrients. Once they dwindle down in numbers, bump up your feeding again, but I'd watch how much I fed.

 

[Mike J.]

It might also be a detritus buildup causing the excessive population.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Let's see some pics!

 

[Jay6363]

Rev I will post pics next time I feed......


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[mcarroll]

Definitely from over-feeding. Just like the worms in your garden, your bristleworm population closely mirrors its available food supply.

If it's not the heavy feeding itself, it's all the resulting detritus building up in the sand and maybe the rocks as well, so start looking for your siphon hose and give the tank a good cleaning.

Cut way back on your feeding, or if your feedings are currently very messy with a lot of food not being eaten by your target organisms, consider feeding more slowly and maybe a different food altogether that would be "more efficient". Consider shutting down your flow and filtration during feeding.

Remember: For most tanks, feeding daily or multiple times per day it's very easy to overdo it. Many people feed only a few times a week or even much less.

If you are feeding daily, a rule of thumb I try to use is to only feed enough for each fish to get "one bite" - trying to consider what that means for each fish. If you do it right a few fish are still going to be hungry after each feeding. (Obviously, extra care is needed if you have special needs fish like a Tang or a fish that always hides.)

-Matt

 

[Mike J.]

If I was forced to give my fish just "one bite" per day, I would quit raising fish. Just stating a fact. How can you say it's definitely from over-feeding? When, more than likely, it's an issue of poor husbandry - not enough nutrient and waste export, improper skimming, filtration issues and detritus build up. In my mind I always think that there's lots of tank owners out there that are starving their fish because the standard advice is "feed less". If people are having problems with algae, or worms in this case, I wouldn't tell them to starve their fish; I'd tell them to fix their filtration issues.

 

[mcarroll]

I don't know how many times you've seen overfeeding like this or bristleworm outbreaks like this, but IME "just not cleaning" won't do this. Might get you one 12" worm though.

-Matt

 

[Jay6363]

If I was forced to give my fish just "one bite" per day, I would quit raising fish. Just stating a fact. How can you say it's definitely from over-feeding? When, more than likely, it's an issue of poor husbandry - not enough nutrient and waste export, improper skimming, filtration issues and detritus build up. In my mind I always think that there's lots of tank owners out there that are starving their fish because the standard advice is "feed less". If people are having problems with algae, or worms in this case, I wouldn't tell them to starve their fish; I'd tell them to fix their filtration issues.

You could assume poor husbandry, however, I have in my opinion a good maybe not the best skimmer and setup. I also have Been keeping saltwater reef tanks for quite a long time. I have never had the amount of worms as I do now....

I also am very diligent and in my tank constantly cleaning and routine maintenance ...... The one thing that has changed for me is the amount of corals that one would spot feed. Aka acans chalices.....

So I think in this case maybe my feeding habits should be changed a bit. I could however give you the complete run down of my system and you could tell me where to improve if u would like? Or point me to your build thread so I can see what a proper setup and what proper husbandry can bring? Thank u for your advice , ill be looking into it.



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[mcarroll]

Spot feeding is notoriously messy unless care is taken...usually more than anyone is willing to put up with. (Understandably.)

Try not target feeding any corals you don't absolutely have to...or abstain from target feeding altogether if possible. At least for a little while.

Also space out your target feedings and/or make them a lot smaller.

In many, many, many cases target feeding is not required...especially if you have fish that spend any amount of time near your corals.

-Matt

Edit: Meant to say "coral feeding" not "spot feeding". Spot is better than broadcast sometimes, but not necessarily.

 

[Mike J.]

If you're feeding a lot, like I also do, do you use a filter sock? Do you have an overrated skimmer? Do you purposely grow macro algae? Do you keep your ph up to 8.3? Do you turn off all pumps and spot feed slowly, even for fish? Are you only using food that your critters actually consume? These are the husbandry techniques I'm referring to.

My little rant was not directed at you becàuse I do not know all the critters that you keep. I do know, however, that the standard advice of stop feeding is getting out of hand. All the critters in a tank need to be fed. Using the food that they actually consume and directly feeding each animal so there is no extra.

I have fish that if they were fed "one bite" per day would be sick or dying in just days. This is the issue I was addressing.

I would be willing to help evaluate your tank if that was a serious question. Right now none of us know what animals you're keeping. So we'd have to start with what kinds of food they need and how much to feed them.

 

[eliramos]

Agree with above! you may be inadvertently feeding your worms as well as fish try feeding every other day for a while believe me unless you have Anthias or some other special needs fish everyone will be just fine. Or even better try feeding with a turkey baster it will really get your fish excited when they see you walk by. Mine used to always be skiddish when I would pass by cuz every time I did I guess they thought it was time for a water change or a rock would be moved but now they think every time the hood comes up food comes down! Plus you can ensure everyone gets a fair share without any extra wasteful food! Just my .02


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[Jay6363]

If you're feeding a lot, like I also do, do you use a filter sock? Do you have an overrated skimmer? Do you purposely grow macro algae? Do you keep your ph up to 8.3? Do you turn off all pumps and spot feed slowly, even for fish? Are you only using food that your critters actually consume? These are the husbandry techniques I'm referring to.

My little rant was not directed at you becàuse I do not know all the critters that you keep. I do know, however, that the standard advice of stop feeding is getting out of hand. All the critters in a tank need to be fed. Using the food that they actually consume and directly feeding each animal so there is no extra.

I have fish that if they were fed "one bite" per day would be sick or dying in just days. This is the issue I was addressing.

I would be willing to help evaluate your tank if that was a serious question. Right now none of us know what animals you're keeping. So we'd have to start with what kinds of food they need and how much to feed them.

No I was being serious......lol what's the point if asking a question if not likening the advice.

Filter sock yes

Skimmer rated for a 150 gal my tank is a 60 gal with 30 gal sump.

I do have a refugium that that I do grow macro in.

Ph runs between 8.3 to 8.4

When spot feeding corals all pumps off I do use a turkey baster, usually once sometimes twice a week. Depends if I have new corals or not. I mix brine, bloodworms, mysis, reef chilli, phytoplankton..... I could consider it an excess but I try to feed a mix of chalices, dendros, dunking, brain coral, hammer, extremely large sprung stunner, bubble tip anemone and a few others......I do have a healthy mix of emerald crabs hermits and 2 cleaner shrimp a blood shrimp and a golden coral banded shrimp.

The rest of the week just pellet food to med pinches twice a day.




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[bct15]

The bristle worm population will only grow to the size of its food supply, so somehow they are getting more food. Your probably getting a lot of uneaten food with target feeding your coral, since your feeding all of the coral the same thing but they don't eat everything you give them.

Do you have any pics to show how bad your population is?


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[Jay6363]

I am going to post one soon I have been under the gun the last few days but I will post one soon.... I think it all points to my feeding..... But other opinions have been offered which I will explore as well


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[Mike J.]

I'm getting a good feel for your tank by your descriptions. Although, you didn't list the fish that you're feeding? Your mixture of food needs to be explored. Also, I'd reconsider the pellet food, as IME, a lot of it doesn't get eaten.

 

[Jay6363]

I have a blue hippo tang, powder blue tang, chevron tang, 6 line wrasse, flame angel, two clowns
the pellet food for the most part is gobbled up by the chevron and the powder, I will say that some is left over