Best method to control bristle worms
 

Don't want to get rid of them altogether, they are a natural part of the clean up crew, but I do want to reduce the population without enticing them to eat my polyps, etc.

Someone posted "other fish"....can you post what type of fish you are referring to? Thanks!:biggrin:

The population is only as big as it's food supply. Clean the tank of detritus and food bits, they'll decrease on their own.
And bristleworms don't eat polyps.

I'm using a strawberry dottyback to eat the worms now. In the past, I had a nano containing dozens of bristle worms in the rocks. After putting the strawberry dottyback in there for a month, it appeared that every single bristle worm was gone.

Now, I've added a strawberry dottyback in my main tank to take out the bristleworms in there. My orange ricordia and my zoos last year were dissappearing each night. At night, I'd see why the polyps were disappearing. The bristleworms were eating them because I had cut back on feeding food to the tank and they were hungry. Cutting back on food did not make a dent in the populatation at all after a year. So now, I've resorted to using the fish. However note that the dottyback may eat all of the pods as well so if you want pods in your main tank, then don't use this method.

I had a coral banded shrimp in my red sea max, and I would check out the tank in the morning and my CB would have a bristle worm behind the rockwork all wrapped up and twisted in his big claws and he would be having a big old bristle worm breakfast. Kinda gross to see, but kinda cool too. He definitely kept them under control.

But if they don't have anything else to eat, won't they naturally start going after the next easiest prey in my tank? Whether that is polyps, rics, mushrooms whatever???

I am weary on due to the different experiences of others. See the post directly after yours :cry::cry::cry:

Bristleworms are a great part of cuc. you can never get rid of all of them. control is by food and good maintenance. any polyps they may be eating are ones that are dying anyways. they won't eat healthy corals unless you have some predatory kind but the chances of that are small.

Jason

I agree for sure they are a natural and great part of the clean up crew. I just want to keep them in check. I have reduced feeding (about 3 months ago)and I also run an FX5 on my 34g RSM but I haven't noticed a reduction in the population. I should mention that I also blast my rock with a turkey baster to try and keep the detritus to a minimum, plus my corals love the "reef snow"....

Yeah, I've heard they are really good, but I am concerned it would eat my peppermint shrimp:wink:

My corals were pretty healthy when they were being devoured. The orange Ricordia (in the center bottom) had been splitting for a year and were always expanded during the day. Then they just started disappearing and it was clear that the mushrooms were being eaten. Even with pieces of the polyp missing, they would expand during the day. It was clear that the corals were healthy but just eaten. After the orange Ricordia were gone, the zoas in the area started to disappear as well. When I look in the tank at night, I can see bristleworms eating them. One minute, the polyp is there, the next, it is gone. To me, it is clear that they are eating healthy corals.

http://www.hyperdream.com/reef/200705/p1020545_std.jpg

http://www.hyperdream.com/reef/200711/p1040266_std.jpg

http://www.hyperdream.com/reef/200712/p1040743_std.jpg

http://www.hyperdream.com/reef/brist...g_8526_std.jpg

This is a pretty good example of why there is so much confusion on this subject. Unfortunately we use the name bristleworm on HUNDREDS of species, most of which are harmless. The picture Samw posted is a coral eater, I think maybe it's a Phyllodocid of some sort, nasty little buggers and not something you want to leave in there.

Unless you know you have something that is eating coral polyps or going after your snail population I wouldn't get too excited about it.

I think they look like fire worms.

Correct, the tiny red bristleworms commonly refered to as THE "bristleworms" don't eat coral. The eat detritus.

Confusion....that is a great way to sum it up!

Can anybody post pics of the different worms? The one's I have look a lot like the one's in the last post, but maybe they don't????? I don't know anymore.....:redface::redface::redface:

Here's a couple of pics of the worms in my nano

I voted other fish. My orchid dottyback ate all of my worms.

those pics look like the same worms i have, some of mine are 10 inches long but never touch any of my corals.

Jason

We have the same ones as you Sydney, we have never seen them touch our healthy corals. We definately do not have any of the same ones as the ones in Samw's picture, they have different 'heads' and look like they are a different colour from what I can see. We don't use any specific method to control them.

Very interesting, I have what I thought were bristle worms in my tank but now I'm not so sure. I have had a few zoos disapear for no apparent reason, but maybe these worms were eating them. I will have to take a closer look at them when I get home.

Would a Coral Banded Shrimp eat my peppermints? How about my Nassarius?

I have a purple legged CBS in with my 4 pepermints and 2 cleaner shrimp and have had no problems. I also still have worms in the tank and I have a 6 lne and a yellow coris wrasse, and some sort of dotty back as well yellow body with a durple cap on top.

The fish are fairly small right now but hopefully they will start to make a dent in the population. Tanks a 75gal.

I had a cleaner shrimp that hunted worms continuously (and with great vigour). Between that and the Copperbanded Butterfly they were held firmly in check.

If I saw a 10-inch worm I'm thinking I would kill it just because... gives me the willys.

That one thread with the 3-footer in the piping almost made me gag.

Just yesterday I observed one of my cleaner shrimp haul what I believe was a bristle worm out of a crevice in the rock and make short work of it. Never really paid much attention to bristle worms before or worried about controlling them. I've seen a number of them on occasion but all were quite small.

I put a decorator crab in my 80gal reef just because I liked him. Imagine my surprise when I saw him about a week later walking around with a 5" bristle worm hanging out of his mouth like a piece of spaggetti. Before the crab you would see al least one or two every night after the moon lights came on. Now all I see are tiny ones if I ever see them.
Hope this helps.

I have best luck with a spiny blue lobster (the ones without craws), it cleared my 120G tank of any bristle worms. However make sure your frags are mounted securely as it comes out at night to poke into holes to find bristle worms

I had so many bristle worms before I add the cleaner shrimp in my tank. Within a week or so, they all disappeared.

Here are some bristleworm videos.

eating a zoa polyp:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...02926867&hl=en

spawning:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...49296009&hl=en

group video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...71029957&hl=en