Bristle worm Good/Bad?

Tonight I was looking at my tank and I discovered a purple worm coming out from a hole in a rock. When I turned on the light to get a better view of it, it took off and hid. After the light was off for a bit it came back out and is quite active as long as there is no light. This got me thinking what is it? I found a picture of what it looks like here http://reef.geddis.org/p/1337-bristleworm.jpg and read a bit on it. From the looks of it bristle worms can be menacing and will eat corals. The place I found the picture at said this is a good scavanger worm. What is it? Should I get rid or the one worm before I have more? Anyone with info on this worm please help me out.

Hello everyone,

From the looks of it bristle worms can be menacing and will eat corals.

As I remember there are a few varieties that can eat corals. Fortunately, they are rarely found in tanks. I think the most common bad worm is identfied with a pink body and bright red markings along the side. I'd need to look into it again to be sure.

At any rate, much of the "coral eating" opinion seems to stem from BWs clearing up dead or dying corals. People see worms on a dead coral and assume it's the worms fault.

It's also worth mentioning that while they're great in the tank, don't touch them. The white spines along the side are a defense mechanism and can be very uncomfortable. Fortunately you can remove the spines easily by dissolving with vinegar.

Should I get rid or the one worm before I have more?

Nope, keep it. Hopefully it will grow and reproduce. IMO, you want to have a bunch of these, or atleast as many as your tank wants. When starting a tank you probably want to add them, especially if you rock is less than ideal.

Beyond all that, BWs are excellent scavangers, they clean corals, remove dead material and basically process a bunch of junk on down the food chain.

HTH,
Chris

I think they might only be able to get out of hand if their food
source is out of hand!

They eat detritus and fish poo!

So, if you have a lot, you will have less detritus and fish poo!

I'd rather have the worms!


There is a really good article in Coral Magizine, last months
issue! Daniel Knop thinks they are good!

Hello everyone,

They ate my catalina goby like attacked it

Are you telling us that you saw a BW pull a healthy fish out of the water?

But like Suzy said they only get out of hand when you feed them to much.

IMO you don't want to feed them directly. Ideally their numbers are governed by the excess food avaliable after feeding your fish and corals. If your BW population is too high(if there is such a thing) you're probably over feeding your tank. IMO, if your tank is "infested" with worms, the last thing you want to do is to introduce a predator. Unless of course you have some plan as to what is going to happen with all the material they were eating.

Oh ya, and let's not forget that their reproduction can act as fresh natural food for your tank.

If for some reason you feel compelled to reduce the number of BWs in your tank, I would start by target feeding your animals.

HTH,
Chris

Hello everyone,

Reducing tank feeding sends them out aggressively looking for other food

Yep, worst case scenerio they might try to pull some food from a coral. However I find it difficult to believe the worms will ultimately out-compete the corals for food.

Hope that helps,
Chris

Thanks for all the input that everyone has  given. I just don't want to have something in my tank that might get out of hand. I feel it is better to ask then to regret it later.

Simple wrote: Are you telling us that you saw a BW pull a healthy fish out of the water?

it was night and he was sleeping in a rock and the
BW atacked his gills and mouth.
I dont know if he was healthy I had got him a few
days before.

Edited by j's55

Whoops! I just posted a very similar topic in General posts. My bad. I'm starting to see a lot of them too. I do like them, but they're starting to worry me. When do you know you have too many? Does anyone want a few?

When you can no longer see the substrate for all of the bristle worms on it then you have too many.

Seriously though if I look in my refugium I can find 5-10 fairly large worms. 1-2" and 100's of tiny ones less than 1/4" and that is without looking hard.  I have a hunch I see fewer of them in my tank because they are just the kind of food my Mandarin loves to eat. 

I really doubt you could get to the point of too many bristle worms because of the food issue.  Either they will be food, or there will not be enough food to support outrageous numbers of them.  I personally believe that if there was that much food in your tank you'd have far worse problems than bristle worm overload.

Just my $.02.

Also for those who are thinking of getting them out of their tanks I'll restate something Mark has said many times.  If you see one in your tank you likely have 10 or even 100 more that you haven't seen.  I can't imagine what it would take to really get them all out.

Edited by wsinbad1