Bristleworm Bonanza
 

I took this video when the power went out at my house. The lights had been off for a few hours because it was night-time, and then with 40 minutes of no flow, these guys came out. Some had already scurried away because I'd been looking at the tank with my flashlight, so this isn't even as many as there had been. Is this a problem?

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...ps38a87477.jpg

I hate those things but they don't do any harm, I have seem my flame wrasse eating it from time to time.

my previous tailspot blenny would occasionally have a bristle beard due to some encounter during the night with one of them. I think they're harmless but that always annoyed me a little.

I like flicking them into my Rock flower anemones when they start to **** me off when I'm doing something in the tank. They seem to make a pretty decent meal.

Yah there's just so many! I knew I had a lot because of how many pop out from the rocks when I feed, but this just gave me the willies. I think my long horn cowfish has started eating them, he finally started excavating the sand like his species is supposed to by blowing jets of water in to it and then eating whatever he finds. I haven't see what he's actually eating because he stops if I get to close to the tank, but I don't think there's much else in the sand except bristleworms.

I had similar questions recently and all the feedback I got was that they are mostly harmless and potentially beneficial to your reef. I know exactly where a big one is living in my coral and the second I see him munching on it he's gone...

IMO one is one too many but I have the population under control for now I have 3 critters that will munch on them Neon Goby, Lubbocks Wrasse and coral banded shrimp.

I don't like the looks of them and they are just plain old creepy but most people will leave them in the tanks due to their excellent detritus removal but on the other hand when they get too big they have been known to munch on coral.

I wonder if there's a bunch of different species, the guys in my tank don't look like they have the kind of mouth parts that could eat coral. I've watched them eat the small size of pellets and they seem to consume by engulfing, it didn't look like they could easily bite something

I have NEVER had an issue with any munching on coral, got some pretty monster ones since I over feed. They also seem to come in different shades of colours as it appears too. Everything from a nice bright orange/red to such a dull colourless grey. Worst they've done is give my fingers a nice jab when I tried to poke them out of the GSP on the sand... seems to be a favourite hiding spot. In which case then the Anemones get to eat.

The problem is with several hundred species of bristle worm from what I have read browsing several forums and reputed websites most bristle worms are "deemed" reef safe but that comes with a caveat that after after many species reach a certain size their eating habits could change and most reef enthusiasts tend to remove larger specimens from their tank to be safe but at what size is deemed to be too large that seems to be the question that puzzles just about everybody.