Bristle Worm Information Thread! Look Here Before Posting!

[Acoustic]

Okay. All the newbs are killing me. I see at least 15 threads a day asking if they have a bristle worm. So rather than be a jerk. I will be helpfull.

 

 

 

This is a good bristleworm:

 

 

Description:

Bristleworms range in size from small (about 1" long) up to very large at about 20" in length. Most small ones are an orange color, sometime appearing two-tone in color. Larger bristleworms are frequently gray or brownish in color. Bristleworms are composed of many segments and have bristles (setae) which extend from both sides of its body along its entire length, hence their common name. These setae are clearly visible in the picture above. Bristle worms live in the sand or within the live rock. They are nocturnal and not usually seen during the day.

 

Good or Bad?:

This is a tough one. Historically, bristleworms were all considered to be bad. Most literature warns that they can attack and eat clams, anemones, corals and even fish.

 

Recently, most hobbyists have come to the conclusion that small bristle worms pose no threat to other tank inhabitants and are in fact good scavengers and add to the biodiversity of the tank. You can even buy bristleworms from some sources.

 

Even large bristleworms are starting to be better understood. Although it appears that some large bristleworms can be aggressive predators, these seem to be in the minority. Many large bristleworms seem to fall into the harmless scavenger category. The one in the picture above has been in one of my tanks for several years. It is about 1/3" across and at least 12" long although I have only seen about 6" of it. It lives next to a group of clams and has never shown any interest in bothering the other creatures in the tank. He is a very impressive looking specimen in his own right.

 

Notes:

Look for bristle worms at night with a flashlight to see if they are present in your tank. Feeding the tank in the evening will sometimes cause them to come out and feed.

 

Capturing large bristleworms, if you desire to do so, can be difficult. They are secretive and primarily nocturnal. Large ones should not be captured by hand due to their sharp pincher teeth and setae which can puncture the skin. One way to capture large ones is to place a rock with a hollow on the bottom side onto the sand in the evening. A piece of shrimp or similar can be placed into the hollow to act as bait. The next day the rock can be removed and the worms will come out with the rock, or they can be captured using a net or tweezers and disposed of. There are also traps available on the market. Biological controls are sometimes mentioned. Several species of Wrasses, Copperbanded Butterflyfish, Banded Coral Shrimp and Arrow Crabs are all suppose to eat bristleworms, but I doubt that they will eat the large ones which are the only ones to possibly be concerned about. My recommendation is to leave them alone unless you have reason to believe they are causing damage. Also be aware that when an animal, such as a clam dies, the bristle worms will frequently feed on the carcass as will any scavenger. Many people misunderstand that the worms are only scavenging and falsely assume that the worms killed the clam or other specimen.

[Acoustic]

This is a bad bristle worm:

[Acoustic]

Bump. I am going to try and keep this on the first page if the id forum.

[Crakeur]

that bad one is so pretty. I'd almost be willing to let it stay if it came out during viewing hours.

 

It should be noted that, while most bristle worms are beneficial, when they get too big they can be a problem. Case in point, my 2 footer (or more). It has been spotted munching on zoos and was wrapped around the base of a giant toadstool two days in a row. The toadstool suffered some damage but lived. the worm was chased into the mantis hole, heavy snapping ensued and neither has been heard from since (about 2 months now).

[Acoustic]

PLEASE READ BFEORE POSTING!!!!!!!!!

[JohnnyMTB]

Thought that was aiptasia, it's all so confusing...

[rehren]

can this be made a sticky? posts like this are very good.

[Acoustic]

I agree.

[Catspa]

To add my 2 Cents on the GOOD or BAD Debate -

(speaking of the typical bristle worm variety)

The answer depends on what other inhabitants you have!!!

 

SENARIO 1 - Typical setups with tangs, angels, damsels, or whatever will have no problems with bristle worms, and there scavenging efforts can truly be appreciated.

 

ON THE OTHER HAND …

 

SENARIO 2 - if you have fish that are small and tend to frequent borrows and such, Bristle worms can DEFINATELY represent a problems/danger. :*(

 

Bristle Worms are opportunists – they’re eat whatever they can get there hands on, typically scavenging, but if they’re big enough, and hungry enough they will attack small fish, with the fish later dieing from the resulting injury. – no Joke – X)

 

Case(s) in point – I’ve had several small fish attacked by Bristle Worms – I’ve even witnessed the attack on two occasions. Fish attacked and killed – 1” Red Head Goby, 1½” firefish, and currently I’ve a black 1½” Ray Shrimp Goby that has bean attacked several times (worms attracted by food the pistol shrimp brings into the borrow). The worms in question were of the typical variety in the 2-3” size.

[BlackSumbel]

I've had one problem with BWs. I had a SW acclimated Guppy in my tank for a month. He was doing great (he had even become interested in eating pods), and one morning I found him impaled on a rather shiny (almost metallic) tuft of spikes or something.

Untill recently I thought it was a peice of formiferan, but while arraging my LR the other day, this -massive- worm came out of an old barnacle skeleton.

It was like the size of my finger, and looked a bit like the "bad bristle", aside from being more silvery in color. This morning, i'd managed to bait him into a hunk of lava rock and disposed of him in the Freshwater Bucket of No Return. Man, Bristles writhe and fight when you freshwater dunk them...

 

Anyway, his bristles looked exactly like what had impaled the guppy. My assertion is the "Mr. Guppy" fell asleep, settled down against the rockwork, and got tagged.

 

Mr. Guppy, for reference, was all of 7mm long. Tiny fish, big bristleworm. Be cafeful if you notice a large amount of bristleworms, especially with smaller fish (young gobies, perculas that host with the sand... etc. lol)

 

-Sumbel.