pests - bristle worm???

[leon]

Hello all,
This evening whilst looking at the tank with a torch i saw something moving around in the tank water, at first i thought it was just debris, but when i looked closer it was swimming around quite fast!, then it ducked behind a small piece of L.R then crawled along the sand like a snake does, then kept raising its head looking around again in much the same way a snake does. Its about 2cm long very thin translucent white all over but with a red vein going through from about 1/4 the way back to its tail, and tiny bristles, looks like a tiny leg of a brittle star. Could this be a bristle worm? ive been looking at sites for them but none mention them swimming around, or really look that much like this ( pics seem to show them fattish and flat).
Also are there any decent sites that have decent descriptions and pics of pests?
cheers.

 

[Navarre]

Its possibly a bristle worm. Not a pest if it is as bristleworms do a valuable job as cleanup crew in the tank.

 

[leon]

so can they swim then?, when looking at it, i had no idea of how it was doing it!!

 

[Navarre]

I cant say i have heard of one swimming before but i wont say that they catagorically cant as i could well be mistaken. I will see if i can find a link to a worm site for you. I saw one only a couple of days ago and i really should have bookmarked it.

 

[Navarre]

Here is the link. Perhaps you can find your worm among this lot.

Worm ID

 

[leon]

nope none look similar to it, thanks anyway. I thought bristleworms could attack corals and even fish when big enough?

 

[Navarre]

They have to get very big. To be honest I dont think anyone can say for sure if the larger ones are predators or just very ifficient scavengers of sick or dieing fish. The trouble is, they are all but impossible to remove from the system. Better to use control methods I would say. I keep a Silty wrasse for just this purpose. It will devour any bristleworm that it finds. It wont wipe the population out of course but it does help keep them under control.

 

[Miss Reefer]

Just a cautionary note about bristle worms

if you are planning to keep clams then bristle worms can kill them by attacking them from underneath, you can overcome this by using D&D epoxy putty to make a base and mount the clam onto this. The clams usually mould themselves to their host rock in the wild but farmed ones need mounting correctly to avoid attack from these worms.

A simple safe way of killing the anenome is to get a needle syringe of kalk water mix and injet a small ammount into the body. It will not affect the other residents in your tank.

 

[Navarre]

Hmm.. there is no conclusive evidence that bristleworms kill clams IMO. I have a clam sitting in my sand and i have bristleworms, it is healthy and shows no sign of being eaten (My flame scallop is the same).
I personally beleive (and many other ;eading marine biologists are forming this concluion) that bristlewroms will be attracted to rotting matter. if the clam is unwell or decaying then they will home in and finish the job. A clam can decay from under the sand and the hobbiest wont even know this is happening. The first they know about it is when they see the bristleworms attacking it and of course the worms get the blame.

Of course, im not saying that this will never happen. I have learnt many times that there are always exceptions to the rules and its quite possible for large specimens to have a higher appetite than smaller worms and thus look for food in other ares (perhaps targetting a clam) but its extremely rare from what i have seen for a clam to be attacked in such a way especially if its complelty healthy

 

[Miss Reefer]

you are correct in what you say, however clams are vunerable from the underside. The soft tissue is protected in natural clams as they have glued themsleves onto the host rock where they started life. This is not the case in farmed clams.

Many bristle worms prefer to occupy the holes in live rock although a few live/forage in the sand itself. If you plan to keep clams then it makes sense to protect your investment from the few worms that live/forage in the sandy bases of martine aquariums. Mounting clams correctly will ensure that they cannot be attatcked in this way and will ensure a long and healthy life.

 

[Coral platy]

bristle worms do not damage corals /eat fish they are just something that comes in live rock.
You can get rid of it as they do look ugly.
I think they filter the gravel/sand but i have not heard of them bieng aggressive.

My dad used to have one. he baught it it was about £20 i think and it died for some reason.

I hope you have figured out what to do with it.

James

 

[Navarre]

Large bristle worms have been seen eating corals. But these are usually documented at 5-7ft in length. At this size they have very large appetities obviously. Again I would not say this is something that every worm will do as a natural feeding instinct just like not all Large angels will nibble coral polyps, its very much down to hte the rarety among the norm

 

[Great Lakes]

I don't have clams yet, but I do have brains and tongue corals sitting directly on my sand bed and have never had a problem with them being attacked by bristle worms.