Target Feeding A...bristleworm?!?

[Donya]

I just discovered a 4" bristleworm in my 12g. It's a beatiful animal, but good greif did it give me a scare today. I have a fish in the tank now, so I was trying to target feed the fish, and the bristle worm came out and went right for the turkey baster. After I recovered from the shock of seing a large, brightly colored worm shoot out of the rocks and grab the food, I gave it other little tidbits so I could see it come out and figure out what it was I saw. It must have a really good sense of smell to be able to find the turkey baster so quickly...it's even more efficient than the fish. But, now I'm wondering...

1. Ok this guy must have been in there for a while to get to this size (nothing added for quite some time that could have transported such a critter), so he can't be that bad, right? Everything is still living in the tank so I presumed it was just a harmless scavenger. Doesn't look like a clam worm since the mandables arn't even visible with a magnifying glass.

2. At that size, is this thing going to find enough food on its own? Is it a bad idea if I give it a tidbit at feeding time so it doesn't make a pest of itself when I feed the fish?

3. Will this thing "max out" at a size in the tank or will I eventually wind up with King Kong the bristleworm? I would like to keep it, but if I'll wake up in a couple weeks and see a foot-long worm in my tank maybe I should find someplace else for it...

 

[Locke]

There have been known accounts of very long and very large bristleworms in aquariums. You shouldn't really feed it because it will grow bigger.

SB

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

When your feeding look all over your LR carefully, you'll be amazed how many bristleworms come out looking for food.

 

[SkiFletch]

When your feeding look all over your LR carefully, you'll be amazed how many bristleworms come out looking for food.

Agreed, mine come right out when food goes in the tank... Cool to watch . I havent target fed them in 2 months and they're still there. Must be getting food from somewhere

 

[Mr Miagi]

They just scavange scraps. Mine come out when the pellets sink to the floor. The have surprisigly large mouths LOL.

 

[Donya]

It's like summoning some strange worm god...the offering lands on the sacred live rock, and the worm materializes

I will have to work out a solution for feeding the fish though. Maybe I can train it to feed at different rock. I'll probably make another post about this fish later...it is nearly blind and looks like it tried to pick a fight with something out of its league in the distant past. Long complicated story at any rate it makes feeding complicated since the worm gets right in the way for feeding...which is difficult even without the worm sticking it's furry face in the way. If a stray piece of food drifts across the rock then the worm is distracted and doesn't get in the way.

 

[Navarre]

Dont target feed the worm, there really is n o need as they are formidable scavengers in their own right. If you target feed it then it will become lazy and thus become a less efficient part of thye cleanup crew.

You may think you only have 1 but i can assure you yo that you probably have upwards of 100 in that tank


It wont be a problem (as long as you dont target feed). There are reports of monster worms up to 7ft long living in tanks as little as 2ft!! This is when most hobbiets begin to see daamge to corals as the appetites of the worms grows alot more. All in all however these worms are great additions and all you really need to do is leave them do their job.

As for target feeding the fish, try finding a food source that doesnt drop immediately to the bottom. Flakes are good for this, Cyclopeze is also an excellant nutritional food that takes a long time to reach the floor.

 

[Donya]

I will probably be picking up some Cyclopeze today or tomorrow for other animals, but I'm not sure it will solve the feeding issue. If I could get a photo of the fish, you'd understand the problem lol I practically have to put the turkey baster in it's mouth for it to find the food, so I'm not sure changing the food type will help. Live food is a disaster. I was going to make a separate post, but since the fish food is on topic: it's a one-eyed young engineer goby with numerous kinks in its tail, a big scar on the front of its face, and lots of smaller one over the rest of its body. Think "hit by a speedboat" appearance. BTW I'm well aware of the eventual space requirements, what these fish turn into, etc. It's not an ideal situation but, like I said...long story.

Prior to the big bristleworm, if a piece of food landed somewhere, I could just let the fish sniff around for an hour or so to find it. For the moment, I'll just take the extra time target feeding the fish and make sure everything gets eaten so I don't have a lazy worm...the worm is hard to resist though I'm sure I have tons of little bristleworms in the tank but they're being good little cleaners right now: out of sight when the lights are on instead of in my face

 

[pleder]

Check this out.

 

[Donya]

Man, why did you have to show me that LOL now I'm not going to be able to sleep at night...especially now that my bristleworm's buddies have started hanging out too and making pests of themselves. I must have accidently said some sort of worm-calling incantation it's like a worm frat party in there. So far I've seen:

- bunches of of 1-3" bristlers
- three or four that are in the 4" range
- one whopper that is 5" or more...can't tell exactly. It's not the original worm I found at any rate.

Each one seems to have staked out a territory on the LR. I just darn well better not have one of those 5-foot montsers next. I do like my worms, but I like them a lot better when they don't have an attitude at feeding time.

 

[fishdudein]

As everyone else is stating, bristles make great scavengers, small ones are for the most part harmless. Do take care, however, if you are ever re-stacking or otherwise handling your live rock. If you should accidentally touch one of these "critters", the little bristles tend to break off and become imbedded in soft fleshy areas....nothing that I have ever heard of anyone having serious problems with, but it can be itchy and bothersome.

 

[Donya]

!!!!!!!!!

Ok my estimate of 5" was short by about 3-4". That's not even the entire worm in that photo. I'm guessing I probably have bigger in there, I just havn't seen them yet...

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Very nice, i have one identical to him in the big rock. How did you get him out?

 

[Donya]

I put a really small piece of shrimp carapace in the corner (right about where the worm's nosing around in the photo). The smell got the worm out...and of course it left as soon as it realized I'd duped it lol.

 

[Donya]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

changing feeding times/habbits doesn't work...
cutting down on food doesn't work...
switching food types doesn't work...
having every available light on on during feeding doesn't work...

These things are bullying food off every animal in the tank, including an anemone! The dang nem hurts too, so I don't know why the worms don't care. I've gone at the bristle guys very aggressively with a turkey baster and they totally ignore being harassed and tossed about in the water....they go right back to where the good eats are at immediately. This is out of control.

My couple of feedings early on of these things evidently wasn't the cause of the continued problem, since I've since been doing everything possible to avoid feeding the worms. I don't know what they're eating now, but me cutting down on food has caused them to be on the surface more (hungrier I guess).

Here are tonight's pictures of the dirty rats...

A big one I netted...it was completely unphased and way too easy to catch.

Another bugger preventing my conch from eating while I was messing with the one in the net!