bristle worm

[fishinsouthga]

best way to rid tank of millions of bristleworms? my wife has been feeding while i went out to see now they are everywhere? can i slowly starve them out:? they steal food from everything its like worm farm. anyone have any good traps they invented? its just way to many?

thomas

 

[metalac]

How about that "snail trap"? basically you put in a dark container filled with food and drill small holes in the lid, so that only small stuff can crawl in. Then daily you remove everything that's in the container. For small pest snails people use those 35mm film containers, but i'm guessing anything would work.

 

[WRASSER]

just dont touch them :wink:

 

[mr_X]

if you cut down your feeding, they will slowly shrink in numbers. i have an arrow crab and a coral banded shrimp who both have dined in smaller bristle worms on occasion, but that's just when there's a lack of flake/frozen foods.

 

[ChrisRD]

I agree with X - their population will rise/fall depending on availability of food.

They're good scavengers so, personally, I've never deliberately tried to get rid of them, however I had a Royal Gramma that virtually eliminated a very heavy population of them from a 50 gallon reef. Every few days he would have a bunch of bristles sticking out of his face/mouth like a dog that had gotten into it with a porcupine. :lol:

I've heard the same thing happening with various Pseudochromis sp. in other's tanks as well...

 

[shabash]

If your tank is small a 6-line wrasse will also make short order with them, but unless they are extremely big or are so numerous that they threaten other livestock, I would not worry about them too much. they are detrivores so they would be mostly beneficial..JMO.