Poll: you decide fate of bristle worm
 

Here's the story:
I've known for three years that my tank has a rather large bristle worm (or possibly fire worm) and haven't been able to have my camera in the right spot at the right time to confirm identification. It is becoming more bold in showing itself (roughly the circumference of my little finger) and is at least over 12 inches long (but probably longer).
To make a long story short I'm struggling with what to do about this as it could explain some missing livestock recently (Leopard Wrasse, sand sifting starfish and sleeper goby that the bodies have never been located). I know that Bristle worms are voracious detrius eaters (as i've witnessed it first hand). But if it's going to start cleaning out livestock (or worse my precious RBTA's as they have been listed as eating) then it needs to go.
Therefore I'm allowing all Canreef members the opportunity to participate in my poll and the majority decision is what i will abide by. Let's have some fun with this!

Poll Options (Moderators please re submit this poll on my behalf if I've not submitted it correctly; as this is my first poll submitted)
1. Trap it and move it to the sump.
2. Trap it and give it away to fellow Canreefer.
3. Trap it and kill it.
4. Let it be/leave it alone.

Normally bristle worms are harmless and a good thing to have in a tank despite their reputation. However if it's that large and has you worried you're better to remove it if possible which will ease your nerves and help you sleep.

I vote for killing the bastard :evil:

Thanks for your input!

Don't put it in your sump, one day you'll be cleaning something and you'll get a hand full of bristles, this is not a nice feeling :sad:

If you actually find someone to take it so be it but don't feel bad about flushing it, it's a worm, lets not forget that :lol:

I'm going to vote to keep it but if your worried about it then remove and kill it...you probably have lots more bristle worms in your tank to eat detritus anyway.

I must have thick skin on my hands cause I've picked bristle worms up thinking they were something else without bothering me. I've even had worms get trapped under my fingernails when scrapping algae off rocks...

Hmm, same thing here for me (well, not the fingernail part, haha), but I can pick bristleworms up without irritation, unless I get loaded... but then I just 'scratched' the 'afflicted area' and no bother? I now a couple other people who can pick up bristle worms too.


I'd say its possible its also a eunice worm. These guys grow fairly large and some can end up eating critters and corals. (though most are detrivores, when large sometimes they find other food sources, lol). These are actually very neat critters to own. I'd say whatever kind of worm it is, keep it! They are so cool, and you can certainly get it used to eating food infront of you if you keep a 'feeding trend' up! BTW A eunicid worm typically has 5 'tentacles' on its head, and is usually darker brown, rusty, or black colour. Sometimes they also appear gray. These are the most common colours.

Cheers,

Chris

never had a realy big one so I voted for let it be.
If mine grow that big I might want to remove them though. Flush Flush

Kill it or let it kill, the decision is yours, but i'm gonna vote kill it.

I would want it gone, so I would trap it and get rid of it. Although if I did manage to catch
it in a trap I think I would be to scared to even take the trap out. And there would be a whole lot of screaming going on have fun with that. :biggrin: