Too many Bristle Worms

DracoKat · Jan 21, 2018

In my 9g tank, I have too many bristle worms, and they are HUGE. I pulled one out and it was at least 6" long and there's many more. The photo attached has to be at least 5" long (and there's a large head of another behind it). They're fast and I have a hard time catching them with tweezers and I do not want to take the rocks out to create a mess.

I did cut back feeding my two clowns.

There's no predators for them in the tank, so they're brave and out in the open during the day time.

Just shy of manually removing them and getting a trap, is there any predators that'd be good for a 9g cube with a pair of clowns to help keep their population under control? Even if it gets too big, I can put it in my 75g tank (for backup)

Paul B · Jan 21, 2018

The only predator I know of are arrow crabs and you would need dozens of large ones for that, and they only eat the very small ones. Buy or build a trap, you can catch dozens of them. If you don't want to do that, take a piece of womens stocking and roll it up with a piece of clam in it. Put it on a string and put it in the tank at night. The worms spines get stuck in the nylon and you remove them.

DracoKat · Jan 21, 2018

I like the stocking idea- I will give that a shot!

The tank has a small area and I don’t think a trap would fit. The stocking is a great idea

Bulldog07 · Jan 21, 2018

DracoKat said:
In my 9g tank, I have too many bristle worms, and they are HUGE. I pulled one out and it was at least 6" long and there's many more. The photo attached has to be at least 5" long (and there's a large head of another behind it). They're fast and I have a hard time catching them with tweezers and I do not want to take the rocks out to create a mess.

I did cut back feeding my two clowns.

There's no predators for them in the tank, so they're brave and out in the open during the day time.

Just shy of manually removing them and getting a trap, is there any predators that'd be good for a 9g cube with a pair of clowns to help keep their population under control? Even if it gets too big, I can put it in my 75g tank (for backup)

I'm not sure that it is considered a natural predator, but my coral banded shrimp would eat them. I would frequently come into the room and see one or part of one sticking out of his mouth.