caught me a bristleworm
 

I just caught a big ole bristleworm , now what ? do I leave him in the display tank , banish him to the sump or???

flush it

Put him in your sump. Feed him and love him and one day he'll grow up big and strong like this guy:
http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm

lol that aint no bristleworm!

wow , I thought that the 1 I have is big . yikes
i have read that they can help with cleanup & I have been seeing this guy since I set up the tank 2 years ago but today I nabbed him . So far he has done no harm but ...

I would not be able to flush it in fear it would crawl out from the deep while i was sitting on the toilet.

I sure hope bristleworms don't grow up to be eunicids....


Can anyone throw up a link to some discussion of how bristleworms can actually be detrimental?

I have a hard time buying that they are anything beyond benign at worst and beneficial at best.

call me crazy but I put him back in my display tank , I have a hard time killing things for no reason & this guy has given me no reason . He comes out almost every time I feed & the way I see it he is a part of the reef system , besides if I caught him once I can probably get him twice.

From the reading I have done there are good and bad bristle worms with most being good scavengers, if he is doing no harm then it is one less maint crew member you had to buy.

Hey! I just joined here but thought I could offer some info. Most bristlworms/fireworms aren't detrimental (eg. feather dusters are a kind of bristleworm). The common orange and black one we see is supposedly Eurythroe complanata while the nasty one people occasionally find is Hermodice carunculata. Eunicids are a separate family from the ones people commonly think of as bristleworms.

Here are some useful links discussing and cataloguing some bristleworms:
http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchworms.html
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-04/rs/index.php

Glad you decided to let it stay :). I'll share the worm I found last week with you guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yWx-GSU5j0