Bristle Worms Eating Corals??

Roots

Roots

Member
I have always known that there were bristle worms in my tank. I would see them now and then poking out of a rock and looking for bits of left over fish food. They never seemed to be much of a problem.

Recently I removed all of the fish from my tank to treat them for Marine Ich. It's been about 3 1/2 weeks now and I have noticed that without the fish in the tank the bristle worms have become much bolder and are regularly seen out foraging for food during the lights on hours. Just recently I noticed one that appeared to be chewing on a small Kenya Tree Coral eating it. I have also noticed that one of my new ricordeas has been cut into several pieces as well as a couple other small spotted mushrooms I have been watching grow have disappeared basically overnight. I also noticed that my new Armor Of God Palys have been closed up for several days and I have seen bristle worms crawling around on the frag plug at their base.

I think the bristles seeing that there are no predators in the tank are starting to pick at my corals. I have been feeding the tank to keep the CUC and cleaner shrimps happy as well as feeding my anemone (which I have seen bristles try and steal silversides from my anemone!) so I would think that they are getting fed. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Do you think the bristles will go back into hiding once the fish return and are there any natural viable options for keeping the bristle worm population in check?
 
dmatt88

dmatt88

Has been struck by the ban stick
They sound hungry. Thinning of the herd. Let em go.

.............stay thirsty my friend.
 
steved13

steved13

Well-Known Member
PREMIUM
I'd spend some time removing them. If they're munching on livestock that's not CUC anymore.
 
StirCrayzy

StirCrayzy

Well-Known Member
I dipped a few of my rocks that housed the bigexception guys in 1.036 SW and they came squirming right out.
Not very tolerant to hypersalinity, And your live bacteria will survive.

I found arrow crabs do a good job keeping the small ones at bay, but their #s vary based on available food.
you could try target feeding and if any poke out to steal a meal, grab em.
Also Paul B has a good writeup on trap design, very simple, very effective.
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/diy/75950-bristle-worm-trap.html
 
Roots

Roots

Member
StirCrayzy said:
I dipped a few of my rocks that housed the bigexception guys in 1.036 SW and they came squirming right out.
Not very tolerant to hypersalinity, And your live bacteria will survive.

I found arrow crabs do a good job keeping the small ones at bay, but their #s vary based on available food.
you could try target feeding and if any poke out to steal a meal, grab em.
Also Paul B has a good writeup on trap design, very simple, very effective.
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/diy/75950-bristle-worm-trap.html
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info StirCrayzy I appreciate that. I'll look into the bristle worm trap and see if I can't reduce their numbers a bit. The problem with dipping my rocks is that I have corals on pretty much every single rock in my tank. I don't wanna damage any of my corals or my anemone.

When you say grab em when they come out to feed, how do I grab them. Most of them are pretty small and I would need tweezers or maybe hemostats to grab them. Metal tools in the the tank are a no no right?
 
steved13

steved13

Well-Known Member
PREMIUM
+1 from what I've heard the pantyhose trap works well. You put food in the hose and the bristle worms get stuck in the hose. If you have no desirable worms IE feather dusters, coco worms, etc...you can try Dr G's dewormer food. After feeding that my bristle worms disappeared.
 
Overlook Reef

Overlook Reef

Member
Although it is pretty easy to make a bristle worm trap, I had great luck with this one. Just put some krill or pellets in the trap at night, turn off all lights (including moonlights.) Within an hour you should have some in the trap. This is the trap I have and it worked great! Caught 58 big worms. I have left some of the smaller worms in the tank and got an arrow crab.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Worm-Tube-Reef-Aquarium-Bristle-Worm-Trap-Ultralife-/300558831271
 
Roots

Roots

Member
I made a trap out of a large pill bottle and a piece of a straw. I baited with a couple pieces of silverside and weighted it down with a few frag disks. The first tim eI tried it I saw some bristles checking it out but the straw was too long and they always backed out before getting all the way in. I cut the straw down and tried again. On my second attempt I caught 6 bristles overnight. 4 pretty good sized ones and a couple smaller ones. So I cleaned and re-baited the trap and we'll see if I can catch some more in the coming days. Thanks for all the replies and links.
 
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