Redoing my 68 Gallon Found a Worm...

[chargher]

I started to redo my 68 gallon this time I going to take my time, fix rocks, test water, I learned the hard way not to rush. When moving rocks out of the tank I found orange worms?

Bad good for tank?
What kind are they?

I separated them wonder if there are any more in my rocks.


Tank only has water and a fish in it letting it go though a cleaning process before adding rocks and snails again.

 

[Josh]

Looks like a bristleworm. They are fine in the tank but be careful not to get their bristles stuck in your fingers.

 

[rbtwo4]

That's a BIG one damn! All I see are small ones in my tank. Is too many of them bad for ur tank?

 

[KathyC]

I agree with Josh - bristle worm Not bad for the tank - they are detritus eaters and will eat any dead critter in your tank in a heartbeat. Most folks do have at least a few in their system. Overfeeding causes the population to explode as they will reproduce to the rate of available food. If you have a lot and cut back to a reasonable feeding level, the number of them will diminish

..and congrats to you on making the decision to restart your tank armed with more knowledge!

Rbtwo4 - there are 8,000 varieties (no kidding!) of marine worms. Yuck! Bristleworms that I have seen and people most often ask about come in 2 sizes..the BIG guys and the little ones that only stay about 1/16" - 1/8" wide and top out at about 2 " long. The biggest bristle worm I have seen in my tank was 12" and was totally disgusting (There is a pic of him on my 120 tank thread).

 

[rbtwo4]

12in? Kathy did u freak out when u saw that? I HATE bugs I get squeamish seeing things like that ugh! The ones I see are small like u said.

 

[PolandSpring]

also sixline wrasses help to decrease the amount bristle worms because they feed on them sometimes..so if u rllly want them all gone try and get a wrasse to speed it up

 

[basiab]

Bristle worms are good but not that size. I like them at around 1 inch and not fatter than a thin noodle. If that thing dies in your rock what do you think it will do to your water.

 

[BZOFIQ]

redoing tank because you've found a worm???? you're going to be redoing your tank quite often if your logic doesn't change.

 

[chargher]

redoing tank because you've found a worm???? you're going to be redoing your tank quite often if your logic doesn't change.

no I am redoing my tank because of using crappy tap water that causes my par to be off, because the landscape, and because I started the tank not knowing how to start one now i know I will approach it the right way, in the process of removing the rock i found two of these worms,

 

[jhale]

Looks like a bristleworm. They are fine in the tank but be careful not to get their bristles stuck in your fingers.

Keep a gallon of vinegar on hand. If you get stuck with bristles pour a glass of vinegar and stick your stuck fingers in it, the vinegar will dissolve the bristles in less than a minute.

 

[BZOFIQ]

no I am redoing my tank because of using crappy tap water that causes my par to be off, because the landscape, and because I started the tank not knowing how to start one now i know I will approach it the right way, in the process of removing the rock i found two of these worms,

crappy tap water? are we in 2 different states?

 

[BZOFIQ]

Keep a gallon of vinegar on hand. If you get stuck with bristles pour a glass of vinegar and stick your stuck fingers in it, the vinegar will dissolve the bristles in less than a minute.

nice, good to know.

 

[Chris Jury]

Agreed, that guy looks harmless/beneficial. As Kathy says above, there are 1000's of species of bristle worms encompassing a huge variety. Saying "bristle worm" is sort of like saying "vertebrate"--that includes fish in our aquaria and we aquarists There are predatory species of bristle worm (and predatory on all sorts of different things), but that's not one of them.

 

[ESSELO]

Bristle Worms

bristle worms devastated my thorny oyster and they will eat many different types of coral. they do eat detritus but it's not worth the damage they are capable of. they reproduce rapidly and are difficult to completely remove.