Help! How to remove bristle worms!!

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Nothing against them personally, it's my immune system that objects to them.

All the harm is done to me: in the form of swelling, rash, hives, itchiness and ultimately, a benadryl coma for a day or two.

Nope, all to me.

Na, too much work.

None of my posts were directed toward aquarists who are allergic to bristle worm stings. The original poster said they did not want bristle worms because they don't like the physical appearance of the worms. To this point, the original poster has not mentioned any such allergy.

Removing bristle worms simply because you don't like their physical appearance is a relatively poor use of time. Removing bristle worms from your tank because they can potentially cause a life-threatening anaphylaxisis is a different story entirely and might be worth the effort. Had the OP mentioned any such allergy, I might have advised they take this route. However, they did not.

 

[Dom274]

None of my posts were directed toward aquarists who are allergic to bristle worm stings. The original poster said they did not want bristle worms because they don't like the physical appearance of the worms. To this point, the original poster has not mentioned any such allergy.

Removing bristle worms simply because you don't like their physical appearance is a relatively poor use of time. Removing bristle worms from your tank because they can potentially cause a life-threatening anaphylaxisis is a different story entirely and might be worth the effort. Had the OP mentioned any such allergy, I might have advised they take this route. However, they did not.

Relax. I was just joking around.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Honestly, if you cant handle bristleworms, a reef tank may not be for you!

Leave em be...

 

[keithdoc]

I had one very big NASTY looking bristleworm many years ago (before gaining a LOT of knowledge from sites like this).
I was able to wait till night, use a red light, and pluck that baddie out with some LONG tweezers.

I've heard the traps with some meaty treat will work. You just need to check on it at night (lights OUT).
Red light is your friend - lots of cool stuff comes out at night.
It will probably catch the little ones as well - sounds like that's what you're after.

I'm with you - I don't want anything in my tank that's bigger than my hand
However, I don't mind having little bristle worms.

 

[Adele]

So really no way of removing them? Does everyone have them? God i hate them lol

I’d like to think I don’t, but I know better. They are a good part of your cuc and they kinda freak me out too like the king snakes that live under my tool shed. Beneficial, but doesn’t mean I want to see them.

 

[Onedesign1]

Queen wrasse....may be big for tank though .we bought one and it cleaned the entire tank .it flips over ever piece of anything on the bottom to hunt . I honestly had no idea .But thats what it did .

 

[docvin]

I have a 90 gal reef running for about 10 years. There are thousands in there. I see them come out at night.They cause no harm and actually help clean the tank. Even if you try you won’t get them all and will be frustrated for no reason.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Carefully. Those centipede looking tines on their side really DO hurt. I have none due to 6 lined wrasse. Wrasses eat them. So do Arrow crabs.
If you must remove physically, this is my best friend as it places and removes EVERYTHING in the tank safely and is rustproof.

 

[chum]

my bristle worms are part of my clean up crew ! gets the things i can not reach behind and under rocks.

 

[Metasyntactic]

Small bristle worms aren't a problem but they can be a serious pest if they get large enough. I started finding my hermit and snail shells empty and couldn't figure out what was preying on them. A couple weeks later I looked into my sump and saw a 12 inch bristle worm! Scared the bejesus out of me. He wrapped around my hand when I tried to use forceps to pull him out. Turns out latex gloves do nothing to protect against bristles! My best guess is he stretched into my overflow and got sucked into my sump. Sure enough, once I removed him, I stopped finding empty shells.

 

[jake_francis]

Add a bunch of wrasses in your tank.

 

[Michelle Crossley]

Do bristle worms sting humans.

 

[Michelle Crossley]

Do Bristle worms sting humans?

 

[Dragon52]

Blue head wrasse like them as well but they can be a bully to other fish.

 

[Dennis McGrath]

Do Bristle worms sting humans?

They can indeed. Some people are more sensitive to them than others.
If you leave them alone, you're fine.

 

[Jessesoto33]

Just like worms in the earth at beneficial so are bristle worms beneficial to your tank, not only do they eat all the junk but also opens pores in sand so toxic gases can be removed at a slow rate

 

[Sonam]

For what it's worth we got a coral banded shrimp 3 months ago because we had some very large bristle worms that killed our diamond backed goby (they shared a hole under a rock).

At first the coral banded shrimp didn't seem to make any difference. We considered giving him back to the store but he ate detritus so we kept him.
We proceeded with manual removal of the biggest worms, cut back on our feeding, and over time we observed that while the shrimp wouldn't go after large worms it does seem to take down the population of tiny ones.
We've realized that with this combo of efforts our issue is under control. We still have them but rarely see them anymore.
Hope this helps.

 

[jake_francis]

Add a wrasse

 

[PhreeByrd]

For what it's worth we got a coral banded shrimp 3 months ago because we had some very large bristle worms that killed our diamond backed goby (they shared a hole under a rock).

FWIW, bristleworms did not kill your goby. How on earth did you arrive at that conclusion?

 

[OriginalUserName]

double post