Bristleworms!

[marine123]

Hello,

I have loads of bristleworms in my tank and some are very large please help me , how do u get rid of them.

Plz help!!!

Kind regards,

joe.g

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Hello,

I have loads of bristleworms in my tank and some are very large please help me , how do u get rid of them.

Plz help!!!

Kind regards,

joe.g

In general bristle worms are a good thing. They make brilliant CUC as they can get into parts of the tank that snails and hermits cant.

If you want to thin their numbers out though there are things you can do.

The best way (but most time consuming) is to get some tongs, drop some food in the tank and then remove them manually. This is hard though as they are quick little buggers.

Some Wrasse will eat them (apparently but not seen this firsthand).

Take a bottle and make some smallish (worm sized) holes in it. Put a bit of food in there and leave it in the tank over night. You will get a lot of worms this way but don't use too much food or leave it in for too long or you could foul your water and have an ammonia spike.

 

[-Nemo-]

I've seen my sixline take a stab at every bug imaginable. He completely decimated my bristle worm population as well as my copepods, peanut worms, etc...

 

[sorgan]

My cleaner shrimp are bristleholics, all three of them team up to shred even the big worms.
That said the 3 lads will try to eat anything the first time they see it.

 

[marine123]

cheerz guys i think i will go for a cleaner shrimp and the trap idea!!

 

[marine123]

wud a long nosed hawkfish kill the worms

 

[-Nemo-]

I would think it's more rare than common for cleaners to eat bristle worms so I wouldn't get your hopes up with them.

 

[sorgan]

Yes I think mine are something of an oddity, my LFS didn't belive me when I first told him.

 

[simonas]

theresa bristleworm for sale on another forum 3ft long!!

I don;t mind mine being in the tank

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah my cleaner shrimp, blood shrimp and peppermint shrimp have never paid any attention to the bristle worms.

Sixline wrasses are well known for eating them but they can be aggressive (never kept one though so cant talk from personal experience).

lol I saw that 3ft bristleworm. I got a few that are maybe 7 or 8 inches long but 3ft is kinda scary!!

 

[marine123]

hawkfish???

 

[-Nemo-]

Never heard of one eating them. Best chance would definitely be a sixline but as Barney said, they CAN be troublesome.

 

[marine123]

Thanks guys I got a spotted hawkfish for eleven pounds from my LFS and he has nearly bamished them from my tank except he is attacking my damsel so I am trading him in!!