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Cultivated Reef

bristle worms?


twflys

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Alright, so i decided to give my star fish half a piece of frozen salad shrimp. Dropped it in the tank, and everyone wants a piece. Hermit got it first, but the star stole it from him. Can't believe he swallowed this thing whole. How often should I feed him shrimp like this, I'm guessing once or twice a week.

 

Anyway, while he was busy with the shrimp...................

 

these guys came out, pics aren't too good, but you can make out two of them. Are they bristle worms? Do they need to be evicted? I've only seen them a few times...... the tank is just finished cycling, but haven't added any corals or fish to the tank yet. Just some inverts, and of course the lone star.

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okay, in case you are wondering, that's the starfish at the bottom on the substrate. The two guys in the rock is who I'm curious about, they are so long, that I haven't seen the entire body..... most of it remains in the rocks. Another one, just in case...... sorry the pics are crappy, I didn't want to spook them back into the rocks.

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Bucket o Chum

No don't leave them they might eat some of your LR critters. Also some species can be dangerous to corals and clams, and its hard to identify which ones are harmful and which ones are not. So don't take chances!

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No, it is not hard to ID which ones are harmful and which ones aren't. Those in your picture are run-of-the-mill Eurythoe sp. They are harmless scavengers that are VALUABLE members of any clean-up crew (much more valuable than hermits, that's for sure).

 

If it were a Hermodice, then it may eat corals. However, most of the old reports of bristle worms eating things were worms eating dead tissue not live from dying corals or clams. These guys will swarm an recent dead animal. This has lead to the mis-conception that they kill clams or fishes. The aquarist killed the animal, the worms were just cleaningup the mess. Right nice of 'em if you ask me.

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This is true... I think my hermits and bristleworms are on loan from the mafia.. they are just THAT good at "taking care of" dead stuff...

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Bucket o Chum

Ok sjpresley how can u tell the difference between good and harmful? They all look the same. And how do u know this? Are u a marine biologist or something? To me bristle worms are just bristle worms, plus some sting you if u touch them!

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Karkadannspiral

I have ones that look just like those in the pic. Ive seen them crawl all over my gsp/zoos and Ive yet to have a problem with them. I havent tried to touch them to see if they sting yet, but I figure there is no need for me to touch them.

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Well, the harmful ones LOOK different. The reason they all look the same to you is you have only seen Eurthoe, which ar harmless. So are most all of the larger varieties. The predatory worms very rarely hitch-hike in on LR, because they don't tend to spend a lot of time hiding in it. If you want to know what a coral eater looks like search for Hermodice carunculata. I'm sure you'll be able to tell the difference between it and a Eurythoe (pictured above).

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Thousands upon thousands of species of polycheate worms. Of which, it's been estimated that 1% of what we find in aquaria is harmful to a closed reef. Seems like pretty good odds to me. I have them all over my tanks. They're some of the most beneficial creatures you can have.

 

Yes they do sting if you touch them. So do many corals. Perhaps we should get rid of those too. Ya know... just to be safe.

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Bucket o Chum

sjpresley u lie! Every single picture I saw of Hermodice sp. looked almost exactly like the worms in the picture the only difference was the very closely clustered setae. Also all of the pictures looked scarier. I need a better way of identifying them. Now I'm scared to touch LR and other under water stuff! :*(

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Are you stupid?

 

They look VERY different, and you even say so in your post. Besided different setal formation and size, Hermodice have more defined segmentation.

 

If you are afraid to touch stuff underwater...you are in trouble. Ask some one not scared to death of everything to pack up your LR and take it back to the LFS.

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Ummm, okay guys thanks for the posts......... but, didn't mean to start a war. The consensus is most bristle worms are good for your tank, from my prior readings........ and since I don't yet have any Corals, we'll just have to see if they are harmful or not. Thanks for everyones input, very informative.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I saw my first bristleworm in my tank last night and I'll say I was a little concerned. :)

 

I thought they were much smaller! The one I have is about 5 inches long! Since I only have the live rock and 2 damsels, I'll leave him for now.

 

I have heard both good and bad stuff about these guys, so I guess it's mostly owner's preference as to whether to leave them in the tank or not.

 

I know I got a weird feeling in my stomach when I remembered handling my live rock with this thing (and possibly others) crawling around in it.

 

Alanna

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