dman612
Active Member
i was told a fairy wrasse will eat them but just wondering if there is a better fish/critter for the job. I know they arent a bad thing but there a quite a bunch of them and would like to just keep them under control.
reef safe bristle worm eater?
- Thread starter dman612
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Mike&Terry
Wrasses, Angels, & Tangs, Oh My!
Yellow Banded Coral Shrimp:
Banded Coral Shrimp, Yellow
Peaceful species so you don't have to worry about them attacking your fish. They act as cleaner shrimp in the wild and may even setup a cleaning station in your tank to service fish.
Banded Coral Shrimp, Yellow
Peaceful species so you don't have to worry about them attacking your fish. They act as cleaner shrimp in the wild and may even setup a cleaning station in your tank to service fish.
tuna_bullet
Valuable Member
orange stipe cigar wrasse love bristle worms... (caution love to flip over rocks looking for them) by far the best I have seen in the 20 years of reefing.......
eatbreakfast
Fish Nerd
Fairy wrasses will not eat bristleworms.
Yellow coris wrasse will only eat very small ones.
Essentally the more effective something is at eating bristleworms the less reef safe it is.
The most effective mostly reef safe creature I have used is an arrow crab. Some say that they may eat small fish, but this has never been my experience, and I have kept them with clown gobies and barnacle blennies and all the small fish survived.
Yellow coris wrasse will only eat very small ones.
Essentally the more effective something is at eating bristleworms the less reef safe it is.
The most effective mostly reef safe creature I have used is an arrow crab. Some say that they may eat small fish, but this has never been my experience, and I have kept them with clown gobies and barnacle blennies and all the small fish survived.
tuna_bullet
Valuable Member
my fairy wrasses with eat them once my cigar wrasse starts tearing them apart,,they all grab chunks and hide and eat them..but they do not hunt them down...........
Spsnut
Community Member
All worms have "bristles" it's something that defines them. I watch my fireworms eat an inch long fish turd in less than 10 sec, they race eachother to clean up left over pellets, and seem to have group spawnings (though I've never watched the actual event I have seen them gather for no apparent reason and an hour later my skimmer goes nuts. Though I don't save them from the waste bucket as I do baby snails, things that clean up the tank and feed it as well are good in my book.
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Chris L
Active Member
I love my Yellow wrasse! He is very neat to watch. Saw him chewing on a bristle worm the other week. He would continuously spit it out and also take it in his fish lips and whack it on rocks. Cool to see.
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Mike J.
2500 Club Member
+1 Will clean them up in no time.
What do you think is going to happen to all the stuff your bristle worms eat if you eliminate them? By placing these predators in the portion of your system that harbors the worms, which are needed you will also eliminate lots of other beneficial creatures. Wrong way down the wrong road in my opinion.
Alyxx
Community Member
are the yellow CBS really that much more peaceful than regular coral banded? I have like every shrimp imaginable including harlequins and I never got anything with coral banded in the name due to their reputation.
I have a "regular" coral banded. Stays hidden behind the rockwork almost all day (vs. my cleaner that is out almost all the time). When it does come out, it does its scouring of the live rock for food. If a fish swims to close, it will snatch at it. But it is too slow to catch really anything. More of just a threat. Otherwise, no issues with it. Just a bit grumpy 
Mike&Terry
Wrasses, Angels, & Tangs, Oh My!
The yellow (Stenopus cyanoscelis) and gold(Stenopus zanzibaricus) are both peaceful and shy species. We have kept both in pairs and never had any issues with them. Unlike Stenopus hispidus which is a scavenger in the wild, both of these species are cleaners. We have found that these shrimp do a good job of keeping the bristle worm population in check, but certainly won't wipe them out.
chefb_5
Active Member
So with the Stenopus zanzibaricus or the other one do u have to keep a pair? If so how will u know in a pet store? Will these shrimp eat fire worms? Please PM me or ge a hold of me some how with the answer please!
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gtbarsi
Well-Known Member
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 to 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.
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 to 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.
