Bristle worms

Mike J. · Jun 27, 2013

Several years ago I had a 55 gallon with just a HOB skimmer and HOB filter; that tank had hundreds, if not a thousand bristle worms. I still have that tank today, but it has much better filtration on it, it's going on 9 years old. Now it has maybe a couple bristle worms. So, I've made all the mistakes, too. That tank sure did breed thousands of snails, mostly Stomatella. I would attribute the build up of detritus, because of a lack of filtration, to be the main cause. Didn't take a lot of pics back then, here's the only one I could find. See there's a bristle worm in every crevice? Guess the photo was taken in 2008, so it seemed longer ago than that.

kschweer · Jun 27, 2013

If you want to get rid of a lot of worms fairly quickly and easily you can take some panty hose and put a piece of shrimp in it and tie it up. Put it on your sand bed and let it sit over night. The worms will try to get to the shrimp and will get stuck in the panty hose. The next morning remove the panty hose with the worms stuck to it. I have heard of guys getting 150+ worms in one shot with this method.

You won't get every last one but it will make a big dent in the population. Take the other advice about feeding and you should be able to keep the population in check fairly easily

Salty D · Jun 28, 2013

Here was my 10 gallon worm farm...

PICT1142a by SaltyDawg_2009, on Flickr

PICT1178 by SaltyDawg_2009, on Flickr

PICT1175 by SaltyDawg_2009, on Flickr

PICT1551 by SaltyDawg_2009, on Flickr

After cutting way back on the feedings, they were all but gone in a few months. Nitrates were much better too :bigsmile:.