Bristle Worm Info

[Dragon Wrasse]

I thought this was good info on Bristle Worms, sent to me by the owner of one of my LFS's. Hope you find it as interesting as I did.

Oh, Those Horrible Worms!-Part 2
by Ronald L. Shimek, Ph. D.

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Narrow The Field
Even though there are a lot of bristle worms, and even though a lot of them may be potentially found in reef aquaria, by far and away the most common kinds of bristle worms likely to be encountered by aquarists are fireworms. About now, the average aquarist may think, "Uh-oh, anything with fire in the name doesn't sound too good to me." And the average aquarist would be right, but only to a point. Fireworms have specialized outer defensive bristles made of calcium carbonate. These are hollow and venom-filled. If touched, the bristles stick into whatever touches them and break releasing the venom which causes a burning sensation. If a fish should bite a fire worm, it gets a mouth of small hypodermic needle-like bristles all injecting venom into its mouth. The net result is that after one or two attempts, the fish will typically not attempt to eat a fire worm even if it is starving. The moral of this tale to an aquarist is clear, first, don't eat fireworms! In fact, leave the worms alone and you won't be hurt. If you need to pick them up, wear gloves or use forceps, tweezers, or tongs to avoid injecting yourself with fire worm juice. So, dash myth number 1, they really aren't dangerous as long as you don't eat them and if they are handled properly.

What About What They Eat?
Within the realm of the thousands of bristle worm species, there are certainly varieties that will eat just about everything. Possibly the most impressive are the huge, so-called "bobbit," worms in the genus Eunice. These awesome animals reportedly can reach about an inch (2.5 cm) in diameter, and be up to 50 feet (15 m) long. They reputedly can launch themselves upwards out of the sand and grab fish up to 4 inches (10 cm) long which they then pull down under the sand to consume. Shades of Dune...

Occasionally, Eunice individuals or some related worms make their way into reef aquaria, probably in live rock, and they may cause problems. However, most bristle worms are not Eunicids! Not only do most worms not cause problems, they are, instead, positively beneficial. The myth that bristle worms are dangerous in reef tanks is a classic case of a little bit of knowledge being a dangerous thing. That kernel of knowledge is a classic. One species of fire worm, Hermodice carunculata, has been known for a long time to eat corals, particularly gorgonians. Unlike most worms, Hermodice is well-protected against predation and is commonly seen crawling around and eating its food. Somewhere in the dim dark pasts of the reef aquarium hobby, some less-than-astute individual made the leap of logic that went something like this: "If Hermodice is a fire worm, and Hermodice eats corals, then all fireworms must eat corals." Unfortunately, this leap of logic ends with a resounding "splat" as the conclusion collides with reality. Most fireworms don't eat corals; in fact, it appears that most fire worms, most especially the Eurythoe and Linopherus individuals most commonly found in reef tanks don't eat anything that is living. These animals are scavengers, and very good ones, at that.

The fire worms most commonly found in reef aquaria are probably the best members of the so-called "clean up crew" that most aquarists can have. They eat excess food, detritus, and the remains of dead or dying individuals. While they will not attack living and healthy animals, they definitely will attack and eat an animal that is damaged and releasing blood or other tissue fluids. Because they are very adept at following scent trails and very active in their search for food, they will often find a dead or dying animal and remove all traces of it in very short order. Their fantastic ability as scavengers is likely the cause of the myth that they eat living prey. Most marine invertebrates will appear to be healthy all the time they are, for example, starving to death. If the animal finally succumbs to malnutrition, the worms will start to clean it up. If an aquarist wanders in and sees this occurring in a tank, they don't see some diligent janitors. They see their prize specimen being consumed by some "ugly" worms! And, gasp and gadzooks, they think the worms have killed and eaten it! Well, the latter part of that conclusion is true, but the animal that is now food died of something else. As these worms don't attack and kill animals, neither do their bristles sting corals or sea anemones, and they definitely don't crawl up into the cavities inside a tridacnid clam, and start eating it. All of these "definite facts" are truly fine examples of aquarium mythology.

What fireworms do do, and do well, is clean up excess uneaten food and remove the recently deceased. Both of these tasks are of vital importance in reef tanks, as even a little time at reef temperatures is sufficient to turn a recently deed animal into a severely fouled aquarium. The beneficial fire worms are just about the most important animals that are available to aquarists for keeping their systems clean and functional. Perhaps, all an aquarist has to do to realize this is to contemplate the amount of "excess food" that it takes to grow a large population of the worms. Then, they can contemplate, what would happen to all that excessive nutrient if the fireworms were absent. In all likelihood, that food would have rotted and gone to foul the aquarium.

The moral of this little tale is that many hard and fast aquarium beliefs are myths. In this case, in particular, many of the "horrible" worms in reef aquaria are not only highly beneficial, but in most cases, absolutely necessary for the systems.

References:
Fauchald, K. 1977. The polychaete worms; definitions and keys to the orders, families, and genera. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Los Angeles, CA. 188pp.

Fauchald, K. and P. Jumars. 1979. The diet of worms: a study of polychaete feeding guilds. Oceanography and Marine Biology Annual Review. 17:193-284.

Ruppert, E. E, R. S. Fox and R. D. Barnes. 2003. Invertebrate Zoology, A Functional Evolutionary Approach. 7th Ed. Brooks/Cole-Thomson Learning. Belmont, CA. xvii +963 pp.+ I1-I26pp.

Shimek, R. L. 2004. Marine Invertebrates. 500+ Essential-To-Know Aquarium Species. T. F. H. Publications. Neptune City, NJ. 448 pp. ISBN: 1-890087-66-1

Online References:
Shimek, R. L. 2003a. Polychaete Annelid Identification, or "You Can Always Tell A Bristle Worm. Reefkeeping.com. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-03/rs/index.htm

Shimek, R. L. 2003b. The Large Worm Turns. Reefkeeping.com. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-04/rs/index.htm

Shimek, R. L. 2003c. The Worms Crawl In. Reefkeeping.com. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/index.htm

[daveat]

YAY... in case nobody has ever noticed i actually enjoy my bristle worms and would not remove them unless i see them doing wrong... however i do have a large unidentified worm that i plan on removing but i think that even it will just go into the sump so he can eat as he pleases....

p.s. i have grabbed "fireworms" before and have not noticed any stinging sensations??? maybe its just my caulused hands? oh well i'm not going to complain about that...

VERY GOOD READING!

[jamesgang]

My problem is that I think I have to many bristle worms. In a 10g reef tank with 15lbs of rock I've seen at least 6-8 large (3-4") worms, along with 15-20 fire worms.
I've got a coral banded shrimp, but he seems uninterested in eating any of them for me.
Do I need to go and get the gold coral banded instead?

[cheeks69]

The bristleworm population depends on food availability if you have too many then a sandsifting goby may be an option.

[jamesgang]

Originally Posted by cheeks69

The bristleworm population depends on food availability if you have too many then a sandsifting goby may be an option.

Will a SS Goby actually eat large worms?

[cheeks69]

My Yellow Watchman did, if you look in my gallery there's a couple of pics of him eating BW's.

[Warnberg]

cheeks69, that is cool.... I have seen my peppermint shrimp eat them as well....

[Dragon Wrasse]

Way cool....a Bump from the past.....

[Woodstock]

Good info, thanks!

[Craig Manoukian]

Poycheates, much malined, but as the excellent article indicates, very good members of ye old maintenance crew.

[kathywithbirds]

OH! gotta love those spams.

[Craig Manoukian]

Removed the on post wonder!

[Lfduty]

Originally Posted by daveat

YAY... in case nobody has ever noticed i actually enjoy my bristle worms and would not remove them unless i see them doing wrong... however i do have a large unidentified worm that i plan on removing but i think that even it will just go into the sump so he can eat as he pleases....

p.s. i have grabbed "fireworms" before and have not noticed any stinging sensations??? maybe its just my caulused hands? oh well i'm not going to complain about that...

VERY GOOD READING!

Do you have a pic of you unidentified worm (ufw)?? I may know it or I want to see if I know it