Poll- Bristle worms: good or bad

[Lionfish Lair]

I missed you @Lionfish Lair ! I didn't know. I have some fireworms on route. You'll have to help me I'd them

Awwwww! it's always nice to hear you were missed. I looked forward to your pictures.

What's ur guys take on spaghetti worms?

I like them. I wouldn't bother with them unless they were taking over the sandbed. Then I would probably thin them out and re-evaluate my feeding and routine maintenance regime.

 

[SandJ]

I've only seen 2 true fireworms in a hobbyist's tank.

That makes me feel better. So do you think this one is a Caribbean Fireworm, and not a true fireworm? There is a lot more inches of him in the tank that I could not get out. These are amazingly strong (I may have screamed a little as we played tug of war and it jerked my hand into the rock lol).

 

[Lionfish Lair]

You are correct in that it's not a true fireworm... they are strong though, aren't they?!

 

[Wiz]

I don't think they are fire worms. :-( @Lionfish Lair do you know how many types are not reef safe?

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Those are my favorites!!!! It's the same as "Mr. Eyeballs" above. If you see a lot out in the day or they swarm at night... you have too many. Perhaps the "feature" I hate, is their ability to detect the dying, not just the dead. It's a little.... unsettling O.O

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Hmmm.... that's a hard question about how many are not reef safe. Please forgive typos as my iPad is wanting to change the spelling. The order Eunicida have a lot of bad apples, yet the Dorvilleidae in that group are very common in our tanks and are not a part of the baddies. The bad in that group include the Eunicidae, Lumbrineridae and Oenonidae which all show up in home aquaria. All of those you want out.

Some Syllidae are also not always good to see and can even eat coral, BUT my favorite, the Myrianida is awesome, safe and shows up in our tanks. That one would be a cool one to find.

The Hermodice carunculata and similar crew are bad news as well.

 

[runzwithscissors]

Here's a video I caught when they all spawned at the same time....He was either really constipated or doing some serious breeding. @Lionfish Lair might be able to confirm which one it was, but I saw a number of others doing this at the same time. Was able to grab the iPhone in time to catch this one in the act

 

[Wiz]

That happened to me on my first tank. I was moving rocks around had my arm in the tank and suddenly every bristle worm in the tank started spawning. It was the weirdest thing. Has not happened since

 

[runzwithscissors]

Same here, been reefing for 30+ years and have never seen them in action. Of course, it happened in the wee hours of the morning and I did have a drink in my hand.....if I didn't catch it on the vid I would have thought it was the glass in my hand, lol.

 

[WindeyD]

I have only had little ones; never noticed any nefarious activity. Here's one under 40x magnification:

 

[Lionfish Lair]

How cute! Looks like they are smiling.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

I had a lot of trouble with this guy stealing stuff.... he was the one I played tug-o-war with over a piece of food. I swear I had to consider him a part of the bioload by the amount of chunks of meat he stole and consumed... brat.

 

[Reeferdood]

good. reef safe.
too many. bad.
to big. bad.

Answered perfectly.

 

[SBlisters]

I just found one of these in my tank! It is living in a hole under one of the live rocks.

 

[Cory]

In my bb tank i had bristle worms chew a tunnel through my orange sponge to live inside it, so for that reason i voted not reef safe.

 

[Reeferdood]

I get rid of all of them, period..
They are a pita and I would rather have hermits as a CUC..

 

[audikers]

hahaa

haha this totally cracks me up.

I found a little one in my tank tonight. I really dont want them multiplying. IT was still really small. Will the bottle trick still catch small ones? Would a wrasse be better?

 

[Elementalj]

They're an eyesore but relatively good for the tank. There's zero uneaten food in my tank.

 

[Linkeb3]

Here's a video I caught when they all spawned at the same time....He was either really constipated or doing some serious breeding. @Lionfish Lair might be able to confirm which one it was, but I saw a number of others doing this at the same time. Was able to grab the iPhone in time to catch this one in the act

watching this in bed I screamed “you ****!”, girlfriend was displeased. Never seen that before, good catch.

 

[Jeeperz]

If I can catch them I do as there is more than you can't see