Bristle worms

[JParra]

A friend of mine says that the best way to get rid of bristle wroms and mantis shrimp is to put the live rock in a rubber maid container with a lid for 2 weeks. won't this kill the beneficial bacteria and coralline algea along with the pests? If so what would be the best way to re-introduce the bacteria and coralline algea.

 

Jose

[Hwarang]

Get the rubbermaid and do a salty dip - put the salinity of the water up to about 1.040 and toss the LR in there for a few minutes. you should see the bristleworms and mantis shrimp come poppin' out. quickly remove the LR and return it to your aquarium. Dump out the bucket of extremely salty water and bristleworms.

[Fant]

I dont recomend dunking rock in extreme conditions, high/low salinity that will kill loads of beneficial stuff along with the bad stuff. The best way to screen your rock is to set it up in a bare bottom tank suspended an inch or two off the bottom. After a few days the critters will begin to leave the rock and explore. They can be enticed to move outa the rock with foods or whatever. I just dont get why people think its ok to dunk rock that they paid a small fortune for into nasty solutions.

[NanoAmyDee]

That is the most brilliant way of pest removal I have ever heard! I never thought of that!!

 

cool. another reason to get another tank. HAHA I can hear Manwe's wallet groaning already. hee hee

[Hwarang]

A quick 1 minute dunk isn't enough to kill much of anything that made it through the journey to your LFS then to your house. It's just long enough to make the brisleworms and stuff kak and cough and flee the rock.

 

*shrug*

 

I just don't get why people spend money and time on whole second tanks that look ugly and have egg crate on the bottom etc ... silly.

[Hwarang]

I don't know why people dis on Big Trouble In Little China all the time. Lo Pan is a nice guy.

[BKtomodachi]

What about clams? I have heard that with excessive bristleworms, especially larger ones, that they may damage the clam.

[wastememphis]

I have a bristleworm that came as a hitchiker in my 29gallon tank, hes about one foot long and has eatn a scotter blenny and a linka star. I can't imagine wanting him in there. I saw the worm come out of the rock and grab my second blenny by the tail before I realized how my livestock was being injured. X)

[1fish2fish]

Sorry AbSoluTc, but I kinda need to correct you there. Read this article. It's a little long, but very informative. Some species are predatory and can prey on small fishes, they are just not as common as your run of the mill worms. Section 3. Errant polychaetes is the section you want, but the lead up is worth reading and pulls it all together a little more neatly.

 

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/r_toonen12.html

 

"Probably >99% of errant polychaete worms fall into the category of innocuous scavengers, but there are a few notable exceptions that may prey on corals, clams and snails, and even small fishes. It is these exceptions of which the aquarist need beware, and for which the entire group has gotten it's Bugbear reputation."

[wastememphis]

AbSoluTc, I saw it. Came out of the rock, grabbed my blenny... was going to eat him, people have seen it happen. Storys of them eating hundreds of dollars worth of corals. I don't know what the difference is between fire worms and a bristle worm but heres a pic of the arrow crab I bought trying to eat it.

[NanoAmyDee]

Ok, so here is my stupidity. What does a fireworm look like and what does a common bristleworm look like? I have a ton of small pink bristle worms with white hairs. 2 came on my GSP rock I got. Are those fireworms?

[wastememphis]

No problem, didn't want to sound mean... but everybody told me it couldn't happen but I saw it, then a few people stepped up in another forum and it was a big thing and a story about an 8foot one was told and it was rediclious. How would you recomend removing a 1foot one... i haven't seen it since that picture was taken. About a month ago, but I don't doubt that there isn't one in there still. I have to make sure its gone before I keep putting thigns in there. My long tenticle anemone isn't doing well, it doesn't stick to things with its stalk (?) I dont know why but it might be the worm, it was positioned around where I saw the worm. The traps that are at my lfs are too small for the one I saw and I dont know what to do about making one out of a pvc pipe... any ideas?

[1fish2fish]

That website I linked talks a little about removal of the bad type. If you have to handle it with your hands go out and get a new pair of rubber gloves fromt he grocery store. Wash them very well to remove ny residues. I have actually removed a nuisance species from my tank before. It was about 2/4 "wide by about 10" +. I saw it and acted without thinking. The result was numerous bristles in my hand and the damn thing bit me. It hurt like a sob. I was quite lucky as some species can actually cause a pretty severe reaction.

 

 

So, don't use bare hands, you might try to trap it. If you see it go into a rock then you could remove that piece of rock and use the high salinity solution or even use CO2. The carbon dioxide method will kill the rock though so I'd try for the high salinity first. This should force the critter out of the rock. Under no circumstances should you grab him while he is partly in the rock. The segments left behind will regenerate and if you break him into multiple pieces you might multiply your problem.

 

Oh, I hope I didn't sound to much like I ws jumping on ya AbS. I jsut wanted to make sure the whole story was presented. You know how we fish folk are... OPINIONATED! LOL

[Salt-Mantis]

Get a six line wrasse. If you got bristleworms they got food.

[Hwarang]

I had luck with a bristleworm trap. It's a tube with a vented funnel opening. The worm can go in, but not out. It came with some food/bait in the package. This works well in new tanks where the worms might be munching on corals because there isn't a lot of detritus accumulated yet.

[1fish2fish]

THe main problem with bristle worm traps is that they are usually small and designed for small worms. That thing looks pretty big. You could try putting a piece of shrimp or somehting out on the sand neat the side of the tank and see if you can oax him out. YOu might even try it at night when he is more likely to have the stones to venture further out.

[Cellenzweig]

What if you take a pop bottle (1l or 2l), cut the top off, invert it and reattach it (with superglue or something). Poke some holes in the bottle so water can flow through and put some bait inside. I have never had anyone try this with bristleworms, but it works with mantis shrimp. It also works well as a minnow trap. Good luck

[Aiptasia]

A lot of dottybacks also love to eat bristleworms, as do arrow crabs.

 

I've lost valuable corals to large fireworms, which are indeed also called bristleworms (large polycheates). There are several bristleworm species and most of them are beneficial to reef environments, yet some of them can harm corals and small animals when they grow large. There is even a small bristleworm that loves to bore into the mantle of clams. A lot of wild caught Tridacnid clams are inspected for these worms.

 

They come in many colors and sizes and usually will predate on corals if there is insufficient food for them to feed upon. Once they get a taste for corals, the fireworms will come back for easy pickings.

 

Bright orange bristleworms are usually called "fireworms," but it's more appropriate to call them fireworms for the pain they inflict if they bite you. Once again, 95% of them are good detritus eaters and leave everything else alone, but some of the larger ones love to eat, and they can turn on corals. I wouldn't necessarily freak if I saw a few in my tanks, but I would keep an eye on my corals for tissue damage.

 

A specific gravity dip at 1.040 will drive out large mantis shrimps and bristleworms from your LR, and you can remove the LR and pick and choose from amongst the remaining animals what you want to put back into the tank. You can do this with long handled tweezers or hemostats. By raising the S.G., it can be irritating to invertebrates but by no means will it kill them, especially with such a short exposure time. There are no chemicals involved other than sea salts and water.

 

Here's a few pictures of big bristleworms:

 

http://www.digideep.com/potw.php?week=200310&id=487

 

http://www.sunflower.com/~reefkeeper/picpage.html

 

http://www.troyb.com/photo/gallery/00000353.htm

[Salt-Mantis]

Please god let somebody open a good LFS in my hometown..

 

Hey, Aiptasia you seem to have alot of good info.

I have read quite a few of your posts (you post frequently.)

You should try opening up your own LFS.

[DSparks]

/agrees with Salt-Mantis

[Yup]

use a skewer (sp?)(you know.... the wooden things for BBQing) I've speared a few that way, and sucked a few more up with a baster.