There are hundreds of different types of bristle worms. Even those beautiful hawaiian featherdusters in your tanks are related.

The most common bristle worm that you see in your tank (the pink and purple ones) are harmless detrivores, more beneficial then any clean up crew you can buy in the store and don't grow any longer then about 18". If you see or hear about a bristle worm eating corals it is NOT one of these guys, it is a different type entirely.

i had one that was like a foot n half long, it stung the **** outa me so i took it outside and covered it in gasoline and torched it.... seemed fun at the time when i was a little canned..:)

I have hundreds of bristle worms in my tank. Whenever I feed the come out, I think they are helping keep everything clean. I had a snail that died by the time I got home. Just for fun I put it in the tank near rock, with-in 10 minutes 20+ worms from different rocks were having a tug of war with it. Truly a awesome sight!

The biggest ones are about 8". I've seen about a dozen this size.

We've had an 8 inch bristle worm (fireworm), which was actually the larger of two halves. About six months earlier, we had speared it in an attempt to remove it from the tank, and it split into two and both parts disappeared into the rock. A tank breakdown finally located the two healthy worms.

It could stretch to over a foot in length to reach food, and we are sure it was the source of mysterious fish disappearances (small gobies).

My wife still gets shivers remembering this beast ... :lol:


http://pansy-paws.com/aquarium/images/Fireworm1.JPG

http://pansy-paws.com/aquarium/images/Fireworm2.JPG

I wonder how a 7 foot long worm would curl up in my 10g tank? :lol:

I saw one today in my tank, it was about the size of your run-of-the-mill earth worm. (maybe 4 or 5" max)

....wow, 7 feet of worm.