Bristle Worm

[GaryP]

I decided to remove a huge Galaxea I have in one corner of my 125 to siphon some detritus and sift some dead snail shells out. I pulled out a very heavy galaxea, it weighs about 25 lbs. I found this guy underneath. Isn't he cute? I did manage to get a handful of bristles for my trouble.

My wife immediately insisted I flush the poor guy. I fought her off and he now is the king of my refugium.

Gary

[Ram_Puppy]

nice, a living vacuum cleaner!

[NaCl_H2O]

That's a big boy! We reworked my corner tank this weekend and in the bottom of the bucket we used to move around live rock was a bristle work about 12" long :-D

He went in my fuge too, all Karen could say was "Yuck"

Must be a good week for big bristle worms!

[GaryP]

Here's a pic of the coral I found it under.

Gary

[Reef69]

My gf just said "gross"!..let me explain to her what it is..lol

[GaryP]

She finally admitted it was a nice color but also said she would never put her hand in the fuge.

My reply was to ask when she had EVER put her hand in the fuge. Touche'

Gary

[john]

I have a couple of these in my tank. I assume they were hitchhikers on the live rock. Are they detrimental to the tank?

[MikeDeL]

John, they are good for the sand bed. the keep it stirred up and clean up detritus. When they start getting big though, they can accidently string other animals in your tank. Thats when they go into the fuge.

[john]

What is too big? I have a 30g and one bristleworm that is about 4", one that is about 3" (from what I can see) and one that looks like a baby.

[SuperXdude]

for every one you see, there might be 10 you don't see.

Watch the tank carefully next time you feed.


X

[matt]

John, you have nothing to worry about. Your worms are beneficial, and will probably never get too big for your tank. I've seen very successful reef tanks that have worms over a foot long.

[don-n-sa]

John,

here are some articles on the various types of worms in the home aquarium

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-03/rs/index.htm

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-04/rs/index.htm

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/index.htm

[GaryP]

I'm feeling the bristles today. My fingers are swollen. I thought I got them all out last night. I missed a couple.

When I picked it up I got a bunch in my fingers. After I saw the worm I used a set of hemostats to move him.

Gary

[scuba_steveo]

Nice worm and nice coral!