Bristleworm Infestation

[DiloHunter]

I have a massive bristleworm outbreak. I've started feeding a little less so that they have as much of a consistent food source. I a Red Coris Wrasse coming tommorow. Is that sufficient? I want to keep some of the bristleworms because they clean, but I'm trying to rearrange my live rock because my engineer gobies have almost knocked them over. I just don't want to get stung. Any suggestions or is a Red Coris Wrasse going to keep the bristleworms from breeding as much. I want to keep some for cleaning but not all because I don't want to get stung.

 

[Peace River]

You may also want to research arrow crabs to see if they may be appropriate for your tank.

 

[shakacuz]

do you have corals? a red coris wrasse may not be reef safe. they also aren't as peaceful as a yellow coris wrasse

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a massive bristleworm outbreak. I've started feeding a little less so that they have as much of a consistent food source. I a Red Coris Wrasse coming tommorow. Is that sufficient? I want to keep some of the bristleworms because they clean, but I'm trying to rearrange my live rock because my engineer gobies have almost knocked them over. I just don't want to get stung. Any suggestions or is a Red Coris Wrasse going to keep the bristleworms from breeding as much. I want to keep some for cleaning but not all because I don't want to get stung.

Overfeeding is one way to sustain them and I see you are working on reduction.
A red coris wrasse is a maybe to eat them but Arrow crabs definitely will. Also note that coris wrasse are notorious for flipping coral and frags in search of food source

Arrow crab

 

[vetteguy53081]

do you have corals? a red coris wrasse may not be reef safe. they also aren't as peaceful as a yellow coris wrasse

Coris reef safe - and Pretty- just keep flipping plugs and coral often

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[Mikedawg]

Might also consider trapping some. Good youtube videos for examples

 

[jda]

What is the issue with the bristle worms? They are an invaluable member of the clean up crew and do very good things, IMO. Why do you want to get rid of them?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

if your concern is getting stung, then just get some aquarium gloves.

 

[Nemo&Friends]

I use to keep them and think they were more useful than not. But then I tried to grow Macro algae, and the devoured it. Now I kill them. I lost most of my macro algae. Only after I started to kill them manually, was I able to have a little algae growing.

 

[Nick Steele]

I added some bumblebee snails for vermetid snails and a coincidence I noticed is my bristle worm population also went way down!

 

[bestfishes]

I noticed once my bristle worm population got large, and some of them got big, I had trouble keeping any crabs or shrimp. They will attack them when they are molting. i tried traps, could not get much captured that way. In the end, flashlight at night and tweezers removed the majority of the big ones for me. Its a royal pain to lift rocks sitting on the sand to get to the largest ones. Here are some recognized predators and a really good article.

1. Arrow crab
2. Boxer shrimp
3. Neon dottyback
4. Orchid dottyback
5. Flame hawkfish
6. Longnose hawkfish
7. Melanurus wrasse
8. Six line wrasse
9. Coris wrasse

The Bristle Worm: Your ultimate guide to this common pest

Get answers to 13 of the most common questions about the bristle worm, including what they eat, how to trap them and what will eat them

www.saltwateraquariumblog.com

 

[shakacuz]

I added some bumblebee snails for vermetid snails and a coincidence I noticed is my bristle worm population also went way down!

the exact same thing happened to me. but then they started going for my coco worm so i moved them to my sump.

 

[DiloHunter]

I have a fowlr tank so corals aren't a problem

 

[DiloHunter]

You may also want to research arrow crabs to see if they may be appropriate for your tank.

Ok. I'll take a look. I want to keep some for CUC but bristleworms are nasty looking so that is a large factor.

 

[MaxTremors]

Coral banded shrimp will also eat them, might be a better option than an arrow crab if you have small fish.

 

[DiloHunter]

What is the issue with the bristle worms? They are an invaluable member of the clean up crew and do very good things, IMO. Why do you want to get rid of them?

TBH they look disgusting, I just want to reduce population due to the fact that they are very good CUC

 

[Auquanut]

How big is your DT? My melanaurus wrasse has kept the bristleworm population in the DT to an undetectable level for years. The sump is a completely different story. Shrimp don't seem to last too long (even though I've never actually seen him show any interest), but the snail population is VERY healthy. Other than that, he's been a model citizen. I have read that other people have had less favorable experiences though.