Bristle worms

[Sea quest]

I have a 220 gallon reef and marine tank.. Everything was doing good then noticed some of the corals were not doing as well, last night w a flashlight noticed hundreds of bristle worms, babies and adults. Could this be my problem? I read that wrasses will help w the population problem..

 

[Mike J.]

Hundreds of bristleworms indicates that your tank is not properly removing detritus. Bristleworms are a good thing in that they are removing dead and decaying matter in the tank. Bristleworms have built in population control. If they don't have the food to support a large population they will cannibalize themselves. Getting a critter like a Coral Banded Shrimp will remove a lot of bristleworms, but you'll have a bigger problem in that there is still lots of waste in the tank.

In other words, clean up your tank and the population of bristleworms will go down by themselves.

 

[Reefing Madness]

The Bristle Worms won't bother anything living.

 

[ZoWhat]

A Hoeven Wrasse will keep the bristle population in check:

 

[Reefing Madness]

Yea, but when he's done eating the worms, then he'll be the one eating your corals.

 

[rworegon]

Coral banded shrimp can be beneficial in controlling the bristle worm population, however, They can also be very troublesome as they will become belligerent and have been known to take out other shrimp and sometimes even small fish. The yellow banded coral shrimp is a better choice. They don't get a large, aren't as aggressive, and won't eat your fish.

 

[DTB100]

I have a bad bristle worm problem I threw in two arrow head crabs, and every night I check they each are eating bristle worms. A big plus, I never had them mess with anything else.

 

[Mike J.]

As Reefing Madness stated once one of these bristleworm eaters have weeded down your bristleworm population then they will start eating all you micro brittle stars and other beneficial fauna.

 

[Reefing Madness]

The whole issue witha big population of bristle worms, is an overfed tank, they've got entirely to much to eat, thus they populate the tank. I've got some in my tank, and used to have a ton, but now, by no means have they taken over, you can control their population by watching how much detritus is in the tank.

 

[Mike J.]

The whole issue witha big population of bristle worms, is an overfed tank, they've got entirely to much to eat, thus they populate the tank. I've got some in my tank, and used to have a ton, but now, by no means have they taken over, you can control their population by watching how much detritus is in the tank.

See post #2. I was trying to be "diplomatic".

 

[Reefing Madness]

See post #2. I was trying to be "diplomatic".

Yea, I thought I would throw down with ya, and emphasize your point.

 

[gtbarsi]

Instead of getting things to eat them you can trap them. You can probably make a good dent in the population and if they keep breading out of control then you know you have a serious overfeeding issue. In any case you could consider it a nutrient export method.

From another thread...

An easy way to catch bristle worms is to put a small piece of shrimp in a piece if panty hose and place it in the tank over night. The bristle worms go for the shrimp while the lights are out and get stuck in the panty hose. In the morning simply remove the panty hose with the bristle worms stuck to it. There's a thread in here where someone caught 100+ in a night.

Insane thread of a tank that has a serious problem. Light out time for bristle worm infestation.