banasophia Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 Oh man I totally jinxed myself! Just this morning I was pondering the various unintended inhabitants in my tank - hydroids, sponges, tunicates, spaghetti worms, possibly peanut worms, stomatella snails - and thinking thank goodness I didn’t seem to have any bristleworms, must’ve successfully removed the baby bristles that came in on my chaeto... Then of course the very same night I have my first bristleworm sighting! Not sure if it’s a fireworm...let me know what you think. Also please let me know if you have suggestions on how best to catch and remove. Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 Why do you want to remove it? Bristleworms are beneficial scavengers. If your pop starts getting out of control, you can remove as you see them, but I wouldn't worry about one lone bristleworm unless it's a true fire worm. 4 Quote Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 Agreed, bristle worms are nothing to be worried about generally, they're a helpful part of the cleanup crew. They are adept a burrowing into rocks as well, eradicating them entirely would be a tall order anyways. It's possible to trap and remove them though, should there be an unlikely issue down the road. Plans for DIY traps are around the web. 2 Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 Thank God for bristleworms! They clean areas we simply can't get to. 2 Quote Link to comment
WV Reefer Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 Yay for Bristleworms!! 🙂 2 Quote Link to comment
DSFIRSTSLTWATER Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 They are creepy as hell but totally fine. Besides you mostly won't see them anyway.. 1 Quote Link to comment
Kellie in CA Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 I have a TON of them. I will admit, they creep me out a bit. But they've never caused me any problems. 2 Quote Link to comment
Subsea Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 Beneficial bristle worms are the mainstay in my 25 year old 30G detritus/mud filter that I turned into a cryptic sponge refugium. Nutrient recycling is the mainstay of my reef husbandry. Using detritus to make bristle worm spores that feed filter feeders is one live food web of nutrient recycling. To understand that free nitrogen gas is converted into nitrate by cynobacteria is the fertilizer that grows coral should make one realize that cynobacteria is necessary for life on planet earth. To realize that free carbon dioxide as a free gas combines with water to form carbonate & bicarbonate alkalinity that when combinned with photosynthesis form glucose which is a carbon source for the reef. To grow photosynthetic organisms requires carbon/nitrogen/Phosphate in the Redfield Ratio of 106/16/1. Just add phosphate & light and things will grow. 2 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 Thanks everyone for your replies. I know they are detrivores, but they are so creepy looking to me. 😬😩 I especially worry that they could harm Finnick (my Biota mandarin) or Trinket (my purple firefish) while they are sleeping at night since they sleep in little holes/coves in the rock and are completely still while they sleep. Are you all fairly certain that the one I spotted isn’t the aggressive type likely to harm my fish? Quote Link to comment
Subsea Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 While bristle worms will eat dead fish, they will not attack and kill. 2 Quote Link to comment
KNelson Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 I have a quite large one that hangs out in the cave my purple firefish habits and it's totally cool. 2 Quote Link to comment
Lugmos12 Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 The only worms I get concerned about are the polyclad (the flat looking ones). 1 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 8 hours ago, banasophia said: Thanks everyone for your replies. I know they are detrivores, but they are so creepy looking to me. 😬😩 I especially worry that they could harm Finnick (my Biota mandarin) or Trinket (my purple firefish) while they are sleeping at night since they sleep in little holes/coves in the rock and are completely still while they sleep. Are you all fairly certain that the one I spotted isn’t the aggressive type likely to harm my fish? It's hard to tell what the worm looks like from the pic but if it's a typical black and orange one, your fish are perfectly safe. 2 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 Thanks for the info and reassurance everyone! I feel better about leaving it in there for now. 1 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted June 16, 2018 Author Share Posted June 16, 2018 Yikes! Well, while I have your attention - helllp!!!! Bubbles have suddenly formed on my Fiji yellow. This is the same one that had a leather eating nudibranch on it a few weeks ago and I ended up cutting off the damaged area a week or two ago because it wasn’t improving and I feared there might be more leather eating nudies on it. Anyway, today I put my lettuce nudibranch on its rock earlier because it looked like some sprigs of briopsis or GHA were sprouting on the rock, but the nudibranch started climbing all over the leather and now it’s just a couple hours later and there are bubbles and brown areas that have formed on it. I took it out and have it in some Seachem reef dip right now... what to do? Quote Link to comment
1891Bro Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 13 hours ago, Clown79 said: Thank God for bristleworms! They clean areas we simply can't get to. Lol. Not sure I’d go THAT far. 3 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted June 16, 2018 Author Share Posted June 16, 2018 @1891Bro, what are your thoughts on my leather... put it back in my tank, or should I be worried about the bubbles that suddenly formed on it? So far I’m not seeing bubbles on anything else... Quote Link to comment
1891Bro Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 1 minute ago, banasophia said: @1891Bro, what are your thoughts on my leather... put it back in my tank, or should I be worried about the bubbles that suddenly formed on it? So far I’m not seeing bubbles on anything else... Oh ####, god damn man, I dunno. I’ve never had a leather coral. Looks like some sorta algae. It’s a bad algae. Throw it away. 1 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted June 16, 2018 Author Share Posted June 16, 2018 Just now, 1891Bro said: Oh ####, god damn man, I dunno. I’ve never had a leather coral. Looks like some sorta algae. It’s a bad algae. Throw it away. Ah just in the nick of time... I was literally just lifting the lid on my tank to put it back in. Thanks for your input. 👍 1 Quote Link to comment
1891Bro Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 3 minutes ago, banasophia said: Ah just in the nick of time... I was literally just lifting the lid on my tank to put it back in. Thanks for your input. 👍 For ####s sake please don’t take me seriously. 5 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted June 16, 2018 Author Share Posted June 16, 2018 Haha my coral is dead now and I blame you!!! Just kidding. You are hilarious! Quote Link to comment
1891Bro Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 33 minutes ago, banasophia said: Haha my coral is dead now and I blame you!!! Just kidding. You are hilarious! Don’t blame me. It’s not in my tank. I know you’re kidding. Tell my wife, she finds me mildly obnoxious, depending on your interpretation of obnoxious, and mildly. 3 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted June 16, 2018 Author Share Posted June 16, 2018 14 minutes ago, 1891Bro said: Don’t blame me. It’s not in my tank. I know you’re kidding. Tell my wife, she finds me mildly obnoxious, depending on your interpretation of obnoxious, and mildly. Haha ... I really was just kidding around. I appreciated your input because I knew you were online, I respect your experience, and I needed to make a quick decision. I was already thinking I should play it safe and remove it because I thought it looked like it could be dino. I’m not really sure removing the leather will help because if I have dino it’s probably just in the tank, but at the same time it was only visible on the one coral and its rock so it seemed safer to remove it. If my new IM Nuvo 10 tank was up and running I would have quarantined it, but it’s not quite there yet... but this really made me realize I should have a QT in place for issues like this in the future. I’m sad because my Fiji yellow was a favorite, but it has been struggling since the leather eating nudibranch was feasting on it anyway. 😞 Quote Link to comment
A Little Blue Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 You actually threw it away?😳 1 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 Dino usually takes more than a few minutes to appear, and would be on more than just one coral... And would generally have stringy snot too... 1 Quote Link to comment
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