I got "bristle wormed"
 

Put my hand in my sump to remove some LR and then I felt an irritation in my finger... It looks like a porcupine! How do I remove?

some say soaking in vinegar will dissolve the bristles

Yeah wish I had known that. I tried the 'run under hot water and vigorously scrub' technique and this is FAIL.

Scotch tape and then vinegar....happens to me all the time :lol:

Well I tried some wax (wifes idea) and now its soaking in vinegar.... Wax sucks, i'll try tape next time :lol:

Thanks for the quick replies! How long do soak for?

bristle worm
 

I have used white Lepages carpenters glue. Spead over affected area let dry and peel it off. Has worked for me but the wax sounds like it would do the same thing only maybe a little over kill! All I can think of is 40 year old virgin!
I still laugh at that.
Keith.

Humm, thats kinda like how it went down :lol: Except it was the burning hot wax that made me yelp!

I use liquid skin and it dissolve them in a minute or so. It also seal the wound and prevent infection. Then you can peal the liquid skin off and the bristle are history. It hapened to me twice last week, once I had hundreds of them in 2 fingers and the thumb.

I use gloves, work like a charm every time ;)

Duct tape!

Yep, that is how I dealt with this; (look real close, you will see a hazy outline on the rest of my fingers. I got them all!)

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...tank/Oops1.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...k/IMG_2335.jpg


Just gently move the duct tape along. They stick real well to it, and it will just pull them out. Of course when I did this, I was putting rock into my tank, at my new place.... Do you think I could find Duct tape? I called a friend, and had them bring me some....

have you tried pulling the bristles out using the bristles from another worm??

ive heard of other remedies like using a blow torch, sandpaper,you could cut the hand right off that works well, soaking the hand in bleach,


or you could simply push all the bristles really hard with your other hand and try to push them down in all the way:)

ps......dont do any of these lol :) haha wayne now i dont feel bad about my eel biting me :)no pain no gain my friend lol:):)itches what lol:)

OMG owww!
But yea thats why i invested in gloves. Best $3 I ever spent.

+1. You never know whats in your tank.... let alone the sump. I use gloves 99% of the time.

Hopefully the 1% is not my downfall. :twised:

PLEASE tell me you removed that monster!!! HOLY $%#*!!!!!

Thats either a really small tank... or a frikin huge BW! That sucker can do some damage.

That has to be at least a 12" wide tank so that worm has to be at least 6"

Most people say that they are a benefit for your tank. I had some zoas that were slowly disappearing. I seen a huge bristle worm about a foot long and it's girth was the size as a pencil on top of the zoas. I got one of these bristle worm traps http://www.aquacave.com/bristleworm-...alife-932.html. Looks like a cheezie gimmick but works great. I watched the worm try and get in and could'nt fit but it also got stuck and I was able to get the worm out. When I put the trap in the sink to remove it from the trap it shrank itself to about an inch long and really fat. Since than my zoas are no longer disappearing. They may be good for our tanks but my zoas are too expensive to be feeding to these ugly worms.

I've been lucky so far Wayne as I don't use gloves either. Good to see the replies from other maybe not so safe reefers for when the inevitable happens!:lol:

It seems like every time I put my hands in the water I end up grabbing a bristle worm, I've even had one jammed under my finger nail when I was trying to scrape algae off a rock :lol:

LOL Jeff thats for sure. I am glad I am not the only one!

On another note anyone ever had bumps under the skin that were itchy? Any recommendations for a solution...

I've got phantom pains just imagining that! I always turkey baste the snot out of the algae-infested zones before I head in with my green thumb. Well ok it's not green until AFTER I'm done but...

My tank is 18" front to back. He isn't fully expanded in that picture. Yes, he is gone. However, I know there is a second one in there. Zoo's don't stand a chance in my tank.

Yeah now I am on a quest to get rid of bristleworms. I snuck up on my tank at midnight and with my flashlight found a huge sucker and pulled him out with tweesers :lol:

I can only seem to get them one at a time this way so I think I will try the nylon approach and see how many that warrents.

P.S. Yeah I know they are good for the tank, but now my finger has lumps under the skin so I don't want a repeat.

Taking it out would probably be smart ;) I actually just pierced myself with my little buddy maurice (foot long or longer bristleworm) in my sump. All i new was i grabbed something squishy so i jerked my hand out of there.
Lucky i knew i had gotten jabbed by a bristleworm otherwise i would've thought i had gotten hit by an underwater cacti :p!
Just soak it in vinegar thats what i did and they went away in a few minutes... Little did i know that i had left the vinegar in a clear cup on the table and i tried drinking it later... not a great experience!

Hope everything gets better in your scavenge for under water "cacti worms" ;)
SeaSerpant

ummmm grrrrroooooossssssssssssssssssssssss :shocked!: