removing bristle worms

[Jeff]

my 30gl seahorse tank has been set up for about a month now and is just finishing a mini cycle. i used existing sand and rock from the 100g i tore down. i have a small spot of bypropsys and some large bristle worms on some of the rocks. i will fresh water dip the rocks for about 5 min. to kill off the bristle worms and bypropsys, as long as i do this to only a third of the rock i should still maintain a ton of life in the sand bed, the other rock, and the sump and fuge.
does anyone else think this will work?

[SaltyJim]

I'm gonna go ahead and say no. I really don't think that a short 5 minute fw bath with kill the bristleworm. If you are lucky, the worm will crawl out, then you can remove it, but I think it will just latch into a hole and wait it out. They do survive shipping inside the rocks, so why not a short dip?

IMO, you may just want to try a homemade trap.

[brewercm]

I think you could take a flame thrower to the briobsys and it will grow back. Try picking it down as far as you can. Are you going to have any small blue leg hermits in this tank? If so they mine will eat at the roots and as long as the patch is small they will handle it. The sea hares I got also seam to hover over my root patches and eat it so far.

[erick]

Now, I dont know about putting one of these into a horse tank, but...... I have a coral banded shrimp that ate a whole bunch of bristel worms in one of my tanks! He is awesome, tracks them down and goes to town.....

[Jeff]

unfortunatly everything that eats bristle worms can't go into a seahorse tank, and i am thinking of getting some small blue legs for the tank.

[shockz]

freshwater dip for 20 minutes and you should be in like flint. when i moved to my new place i wanted to destroy my bristle worm population as well, they are some ugly guys. as soon as i fw dipped the rock half of them came roaring out of the rock trying to escape as fast as they could. after 10 minutes or so the bigger guys started coming out. i couldnt believe the size of some of these guys! if im not mistaken some of the smaller bristle worms will burrow around through the sand itself, making them virtually impossible to get rid of without getting new sand or a critter to regulate them. i have an arrow crab that was doing the trick pretty well(until he lost a claw...so sad), and i know coral banded's like to go crazy on them as well, but they might be too agressive for seahorses. i would look into those guys though, maybe one will work for you. other than that....bristle worm trap...i just like the excuse to add something new to the tank :) but freshwater dip your rock to atleast get rid of the general population, then maybe find a critter to eat the smaller ones. if you see any big guys still lurking around, then i would throw a trap in there to try and get them, or freshwater dip again. but all that seemed to work very well for my situation.

[jroescher]

I would think you would need to dip all the rocks at the same time. Otherwise they will just migrate to the others. And I would think if one rock had bristleworms, then they probably all have worms.

[Isis]

Why do you want to get rid of the bristle worms? They are great detrivores.

[loans_n_fishes]

Will they sting the horses? I know I have at least one biggie in my seahorse tank, but thought he was a pretty good janitor and left him alone. I'm now wondering if I should extricate him from the rock. :unsure

[JimD]

Define "biggie".

[loans_n_fishes]

Around 3" long.... :blink Do they get BIGGER??!!! :wacko

[JimD]

Oh God yes... 3" is a baby, Ive read stories and seen pictures of some specimans reported over the 6 foot mark! I wouldnt worry too much about a 3 incher. I doubt that at that size they would harm your horses.

[DaBird47]

Why do you want to get rid of the bristle worms? They are great detrivores.

I've been wanting to post on this all day, well said Isis...

[loans_n_fishes]

Oh God yes... 3" is a baby, Ive read stories and seen pictures of some specimans reported over the 6 foot mark! I wouldnt worry too much about a 3 incher. I doubt that at that size they would harm your horses.

Was the 6 footer reported in an aquarium, or ocean? I think I will definitely know when it reaches that point. That's when there won't be room left for water in my tank! :o

I have heard of people getting stung when they accidentally touch them, so I thought it might be possible for the horses to hook their tails around him at some point and receive an uncomfortable surprise. Other than that, aren't they "harmless"?

Do people remove them just because they think bristle worms are unsightly, or is there some other reason?

[loans_n_fishes]

Hmmm....bristle worm display tank... 8)

[brewercm]

Someone had a picture of a huge one layed out on their garage floor on one of the sites that they pulled from their tank. I think it was a few feet long also.

[beareef19]

Ive got several in my tank that are15-18 inches when they stretch out. They are great detrivores, they only roam at night in my tank. Yes they do sting only if you come in contact with them[I grabbed a rock out of my tank and one was under it and I got stung ,hurt for days]but they are not aggressive. They release the hairs or stinging cells that are on them when something comes in contact with it ,it is like working with fiberglass, it hurts when it goes in and then itches until it all comes out.

Barry

[Jeff]

it's not really the big worms that you have to worry about it is the small ones. the small ones can be accidentily snicked up by the horses and kill them. they are great detrivores but can become a plague, so i am adding a few nasarius and small blue legged hermits to help take care of any un eaten food and that should help in controling the worm population.

[loans_n_fishes]

So the snails and crabs will beat the worms to the food? I'm not putting any crabs in my seahorse tank (have heard conflicting stories), but I do have nassarius snails. Those snails move pretty quick, but with 4 horses, do you think around 20 snails can compete with the worms?

Heck, maybe I can scoop the worms out and put them in my reef tank for extra clean up... Will they move the rocks around when they get bigger? At what size should one start to panic. :P

[Jeff]

small blue legged are all right, once they get bigger i'll put them in the reef tank. i would start to worry when the reach about a foot long.

check this out http://oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm

[Bill S]

I have snails, blue legs, etc. in my "seahorse" tank. And lots of bristleworms...

[matt]

I'd be happy to take any bristleworms you want to get rid of. One way I've heard to get them out of rocks is to dip the rock in very high salinity water (like over 1.030) and they'll crawl out. I don't know if this works because I've never wanted to kill bristleworms.

About the bryopsis, from what I've heard you should probably just get rid of the rock it's on if it's an isolated patch, before it spreads.

[MikeP]

Most 'bristle' worms are harmless. If you notice an explosion in their population there is excess food somewhere. Also you aren't going to completely eradicate them - they won't bother your horses unless they try to hitch on them.

The large worm in the link to Steve Weast's tank was a Eunicid species which is also a scavenger but definitely will eat corals and some species even small fish if they can catch em. I caught a 16" specimen a couple years back in my big tank and I know one of the guys at Aquatek caught one also - very distinctive since they have 5 tentacles near their mouth.

[bdls]

Could someone please explain to me what a bristle worm is. I'm new the saltwater stuff. On a few of my live rock I have what looks like to be little tentacls coming out reaching for something then they go back into the rock. Would this be considered a bristle worm?
If not does someone know what they might be and how to get rid of them.
Thanks
Bobby

[shockz]

bdls - they tend to be flat and grayish, with no eyes. they have little "bristles" running up and down the sides. the bristles themselves resemble a small paintbrush's "brush" part running up and down the sides. they are usually out at night, or when you feed the tank you might see them come out of the rock and snag a piece of krill or something. heck they even eat my formula 2! but yes, they live in rock and kinda look like a tentacle, i could see that.

[bdls]

Thanks for the reply. That don't sound like what I have.

[SoLiD]

I have those on my rock too. I'm thinking it's some sort of serpent star fish. Completely harmless. ;) -SoLiD

[SoLiD]

As a matter of fact I just some one five seconds ago...

[jroescher]

Bristleworms:
http://johnroescher.com/Sump.aspx
http://johnroescher.com/images/BristleWorms.jpg

[shockz]

hmmm the ones i have are not even close to that red. they look gray. different type of the same worm maybe?

[loans_n_fishes]

Mine are reddish like the picture.

[jroescher]

Seems like some are more reddish in color than others. That pic was taken shorlty after I put them in the fuge. I was feeding them trying to get a good population of all the critters started. The ones I occassionally see now in the tank don't have quite the red to them anymore. It may just be the lighting. That pic is lighted by the camera flash.