Anyone had this happen to their fish? Bristle worm attacked my tailspot blenny?????

fishoholic · #1 10-18-2009, 11:27 PM

So my tailspot blenny has several white spikes sticking out of his side

I'm guessing it was a bristle worm that attacked him. I'm also guessing there is nothing I can do for him

He seems ok for the most part, he's still swimming around and seems to be eating.

Has anyone else had this happen to their fish? I'm hoping after a few days the spikes will fall out and he'll be fine, but does anyone know?

He's kinda staying towards the back of the tank so I don't know if I can get a pic. of not, but I'll try. Tried to get a pic, but it's not clear enough to see the spikes.

fishoholic · #2 10-19-2009, 08:52 PM

Has no one ever found what look like bristle worm spikes in thier fish before?

andestang · #3 10-19-2009, 09:35 PM

To bad you can't get any pics. I've never heard or seen any fish with bristles in them but just a thought maybe it was in/went in a hole when a bristle worm happened to be there.Hope your fish is Ok.

tlo · #4 10-19-2009, 09:47 PM

I have never heard of a brislte worm attacking a fish. It was more than likley the other way around and thats how he got the bristles, or as andestang said, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time

Eb0la11 · #5 10-19-2009, 09:57 PM

I doubt a bristle worm did it too. They seem harmless to me and many other more experienced reefers despite getting blamed for a lot of "problems" in the tank since they are of the scavenging nature and are first on the spot to clean up a dead animal. You're sure this is the type of worm you have in your tank:

bulletsworld · #6 10-19-2009, 10:09 PM

I had it happen to me long time back with bristle worm attacks. I had a lot in my tank at the time and one large bristle worm that would come out, would slide by fish when they were sleeping OR would come out when there was food in the tank and the bristle worm was reaching for the food at that exact time as the fish. I even had a bristle worm wrap around one of my blennies. I removed the rock, later removing him.

My regal tang had the white fiber glass shards (thats what it feels like) sticking in his side. At first I tried to remove them with tweezers but they break off without all coming out and the stress to the fish to you & the fish is HUGE! If you have ever got them in your hand, they dont come out either, you just scrub hard with a brush on your hand. Evenually the fish rubbed and it went away. The next time I seen on my Yellow tang with the the same thing happen, I left it and evenually it disappeared. I would leave it, however, remove the bristle worm.

Hope that helps.

untamed · #7 10-19-2009, 10:13 PM

I support that this happens and it has happened to me. I don't think that the bristleworm makes deliberate contact with the fish...just that certain fish have habits that put them in the same place at the same time.

In my case, I had a red-head blenny that spent much of it's time inside holes in my LR. Over the many years I had him, he would frequently have bristle worm spines sticking out of his head and sometimes out of his eyes. I never attempted to remove them and they didn't seem to cause any long term damage.

sphelps · #8 10-19-2009, 10:17 PM

Happened to me as well, my Regal tang in my old tank use to get them all the time because it would always sleep in the tightest cave it could find. I don't think the fish liked it but the spikes would eventually fall out and things would be back to normal until it happened again.

soapy · #9 10-19-2009, 10:36 PM

Lately my Bi-color blenny has a habit of slapping himself against the sand. I could see how he might pick up some bristles if a worm was buried just beneath the surface. Does anybody know what this slapping behaviour is about?

Leah · #10 10-20-2009, 12:13 AM

Maybe it is trying to stir up some food in the sand