Bristle Worms?

[mnjlp27]

Are these things really a problem?


I have been noticing this one bristle worm lately and he seems to be eating my zoo's? I don'tknow if he is just eating the stuff next to them on the rock but it looks like he eating them. I have asked in different forums and everyone says, "Oh, don't worry about them" or "Get them out NOW!!". What's the real deal with these things? Any advice is greatly appreciated...


Jeremiah

[Dwayne]

Bristleworms need love too.

I've never noticed them eating anything that wasn't already dead.

[David Grigor]

As Dwayne mentions, it is likely the bristle worm is not the root cause......

[Graham]

As Dwayne and David said, the common aquarium varieties are not predatory, they are scavengers. Once in awhile, you'll hear of the rare predatory species finding its way into a tank, but it's really rare. They are a must have IMO...the best cleanup critters your money doesn't have to buy.

[clownfishcrazy]

If you don't see any physical damage done to the zoo's, I wouldn't worry about it.

[FastFish720]

My stole brine shrimp the other day from my RBTA

[mnjlp27]

I guess I will keep an eye on him for a while. He is very cool looking. Never seen it in the daylight, but with my flash light it looks like it is about 2/3 Dark Blue and 1/3 Orange color. Thanks for the info...

Jeremiah

[polskp]

Uh huh,

Benign.... but an intersting scavenger. If anything ever dies on you, you'll have a disposal service.

[WildPraire]

Hi Jeremiah,

Every single one of my bristle worms in my 10 gallon tank are the color you describe, part blue, part pink. I have a LOT of them in there and although somewhat creepy, I don't think they cause harm. I have them in my 120 gallon too, only more variety of colors of them in there, and a couple good sized ones at 8-10 inches .

The only time I've seen them really on my corals is occasionally at night if I've fed before I turned the lights out. No harm done to the corals at all, they are just foraging the food. I think there was a time that the theory was to get rid of them. Now it appears it's unusual to have the type that cause damage.

Sue

[capman]

I also agree that the ones we commonly have in our tanks are normally harmless (I had some living in jawfish burrows in the past though that irritated the jawfish's skin from frequent contact between fish and worms...this is the only problem I've had with these worms), and they are absolutley the most amazing scavengers I have ever seen in an aquarium.

I have to wonder (I'm just speculating here) whether a lot of the worry about fireworms in the hobby comes from the early days of reef tanks (e.g. 10-15 years ago or so?), when a lot of live rock was coming in from the Fl Keys and Caribbean. There is a relatively common fireworm (Hermodice carunculata) in that part of the world that does in fact eat corals. I have no idea how often this species actually made it into aquaria on live rock, but I imagine this species might in fact be pretty damaging to corals if it gets into an aquarium. There are a variety of other polychaete worm ("bristle worm") species from around the world that are predaceous, feeding on a wide variety of different other creatures depending on the species of worm. My guess is that some of these worms could in fact wreck havoc with various invertebrates in an aquarium.

However, in the 8 or so years I have been keeping reef tanks I have not run into a single one of these voraceous predaceous polychaete worms (or if I did, I was not aware of it, and it certainly did no obvious damage to anything), and I don't know of anyone else in the club who has polychaete worm horror stories either.

Again, the commonly encountered fireworms most of us have in our tanks are really beneficial and quite harmless (just as long as you are careful to not accidentally touch them when picking up rocks).

Polychaete worms are amazingly diverse, by the way, with an amazing assortment of body forms and lifestyles (including a lot of really cool and really strange sorts). Though realatively little of this phenomenally enormous diversity is likely to show up in our reef tanks, and even fewer species are likely to be able to reproduce successfully and maintain ongoing populations in our tanks, there are still quite a few species that can be found in our tanks. Watching these little (and sometimes not so little!) worms is one of the joys of keeping reef tanks.

[Dwayne]

Originally posted by capman
Though realatively little of this phenomenally enormous diversity is likely to show up in our reef tanks, and even fewer species are likely to be able to reproduce successfully and maintain ongoing populations in our tanks, there are still quite a few species that can be found in our tanks. Watching these little (and sometimes not so little!) worms is one of the joys of keeping reef tanks.

FWIW

The pink/blue/black bristleworms are very common. These do reproduce in aquariums. If you happen to see small 'eruptions' of pepto bismal looking stuff in your tank, this would be your bristleworms spawning. Very cool to watch as they shake their tail (or head, not sure which) in the water column and spew.

Dwayne

[capman]

Originally posted by Dwayne

If you happen to see small 'eruptions' of pepto bismal looking stuff in your tank, this would be your bristleworms spawning. Very cool to watch as they shake their tail (or head, not sure which) in the water column and spew.

Dwayne

You know, despite the fact that I have literally hundreds of these big pink fireworms in my tanks, and they have obviously been reproducing in the tanks, I have never managed to see them spawning (though I saw some little swimming polychaetes spawning once, which was very cool). I wonder if the reason is that I am rarely in the lab at night. Do yours normally spawn only late in the evening or at night?

[Dwayne]

Originally posted by capman
Do yours normally spawn only late in the evening or at night?

I've seen it at all times of the day and night.

[Dwayne]

For those that haven't seen it.

Bristleworm in anemone tentacles.



Bristleworm poised and ready.



Bristleworm doing its part to save the species. Acutally this pic was taken a little late. Before the tank water starts to dilute the 'spewage', it is more pinkish in color.

[capman]

cool photos! (though the first one did not come up for me).