Can bristle worms be harmful
 

I know that generally bristle worms are good for reef systems or at least not all that harmful. However I was feeding my open brain coral this morning with my little led flashlight. At first all was good and checked back a few minutes later to see how it was making out. Noticed a really big long birstle worm, it had one end attached to a ledge about six inches above my brain and the other end sweeping across the sand heading towards the brain. The bristle worm must have been at least eight inches long. At what point should I think about trying to get him out?

Different opinions about them, some people like them, some want them out. I love them in my tank, never had any problems. They are carnivorous though, so there's stories of them eating clams and fish... but they're known for mostly being scavengers, which is probably what people see them doing and blameing the worm for the kill.

There are fire worms that look close, and those can hurt like a SOB when you aquascape and accidentaly touch them. I was shocked that they actually hurt that bad.

The hury is out on them. I don't mind them necessarily but I've noticed that my blenny sometimes has a side full of the bristles after darting into a hole where a BW is hiding.

Lol yeah same thing happened to my blenny once. He must have learned his lesson tho.

I've got a huge BW I've been trying to snag but somehow he sees me coming and darts quickly back into the rockwork. If he does come out in the open it's when the halides go off leaving just t5s. I think they're likely good clean up crew but I always turkey baste algae patches before i go pruning. them bristle suck.

All I will say is they can be clam killers and I get them out when I see them. Pulled about a dozen out of my sump when I had to repair it

They are beneficial for removing left over food, however they can be harmfull in many ways.

1. you accidentaly toutch it and get bristle in your fingers

2. they can go into clam and harm them

3. today my copperband picked at the food in the liverock and there was a bristle worm in with the food and the fish now has a bunch of bristles in his mouth :(

4. if you put food for a slow eater like a mandarin or a copperband these worms can come out of nowhere and eat everything before the fish has the time to eat.

I get bristles in my fingers so often, about one to two times per week. I put liquid skin on it and they melt so not really bad as it does not hurt one bit but it's anoying. Once I had hundreds of bristle in 3 of my fingers, including my thumb so I could not use that hand for about 30 minutes until the liquid skin managed to melt them, then I can peal them off. I have read that vinegar also melt the bristles. I leave the small ones and remove the large ones.