bristleworms, 12 inches, friend or foe?

[howman1]

i have thousands of bristleworms,
my refugium is loaded with them (they are under 6 inches)

today, i fed some flake food in the main tank......and I saw a bristlework come out, almost as think as my pinky and at least 12 inches long (it didn't come completely out from under the rock..._
there are others approaching this size in my tank

i have a coral banded shrimp which probably keeps the tank population in balance by eating the small guys

here is my concern, sprung's book on invertebrates states that large bristle worms can harm corals and clams....these guys are large and i am concerned
also, i get the shivers .... to put my hand in to rearrange a rock..
any suggestions, should i try and extricate these guys......dip the rock into heavily salinted water and sayonara bristle worm?

howard

 

[Anonymous]

I'd say leave it. You don't say what the size of your tank is, but unless it is smaller than a 20 or so, I don't think you would have a problem with it. There is no since trying to kill it unless it is doing harm, and you can verify that the worm in question is the culprit (sp?). If you can extricate it out of the tank without killing it, other people with bigger tanks would probably take it off your hands.

As I only have a 15 and a 7, that worm would wreck havoc in either of my tanks. Although I wonder what my mantis shrimp would do with it...

Brett

 

[reefsRcool]

seeing as you have no shortage of smaller bristle worms i wouldn't hesitate at all to yank the offending worm out. why wait until it have caused ireparible damage. the way i see it inocent until proven guilty has no place in reefing with the amount of effort and money we put in these tanks. i have a simple two question test i use.
1. will it be missed biologically by the tank?
2. is it's presence in the tank causing me stress.

if you say no and yes then yank that sucker. now excuse me while i slip into my nomex suit.

 

[Mike02]

i say send in the weapons inspectors first rather than do the pre-emptive strike. removing the king kahuna might wrile all the other bristleworms into striking back.

 

[Anonymous]

i say send in the weapons inspectors first rather than do the pre-emptive strike. removing the king kahuna might wrile all the other bristleworms into striking back.

Scott Ritter will straighten things out!

 

[Anonymous]

I don't see a choice, how the hell would you get it out anyway?

At any rate the chances are against its being a baddie.

 

[Freedom75@work]

Howman

I have a 72 bow. I have probably 20 of those around that size at last count. Thay never seem to cause a problem. And they come out at night and do alot of cleaning. Picking up any left over food and stuff off the bottom. I dipped all of my rocks 2 months ago due to a massive flat worm attack it did nothing to them they are all still fine. I would personally leave them alone. but I enjoy watching them come out at night

Freedom75 :lol:

 

[Anemone]

Ditto on Freedom's comment. Have a bunch that size - have no problems. Your worm has reached this size without you noticing any damage - why worry now?

Kevin