worms

[rdog]

i was wondering on different peoples opinons on bristleworms... Good or Bad... I heard some say leave them and some say they wiith kill corals and or inverts...

[ReefinAZ]

Bristleworms Can not possible harm a healthy Fish or Invert. They are basically decomposers. That who fear them usually blame them because they will find them eating a dead speciman thinking they killed them. They are good. If you have too many, cut the amount of food you put in the tank.

[mrs.geek]

I am sorry that some one misinformed you. Bristleworms are harmless and very beneficial scavengers in an aquarium. There is allot of people who have heard the horror stories of a 12 inch bristleworm eating all their fish and corals and that story has caused much panic over the sight of some bristleworms in a tank. First of all there are only a few species of bristleworms(only one that i am aware of) that will actually harm your corals or fish. This species gets very large and will not reproduce in your tank. At least there has never been a report of them breeding in a tank. The common bristleworms found in just about every reef aquarium are harmless. The spend much of their time eating waste products and detritus that builds up in your tank. They can reach areas of the tank that you can't to rid accumulations of debris that would eventually breakdown in your tank putting off nitrogen as they decay. They will readily reproduce in your aquarium and the free swimming larva of the bristleworm is part of what makes up the plankton that your filter feeding invertebrates feed upon including corals. Eradicating them from your tank is not only a very difficult task but also not necessary. Even if you took every measure possible to rid your tank of these scavengers the tank will most likely always harbor a small amount of them. Keeping their numbers in check is a much more attainable goal. Simply keeping up on your partial water changes will siphon out enough of them to keep their numbers down. Most of the fish and invertebrates that you can buy to add to your tank in hopes that they will eat them are either fed too well to really control the problem or they will end up eating all the other species of worms in your tank that are beneficial including feather dusters. Some of those fish and inverts will also nip at some coral polyps if given the chance. From my experience with bristleworms I can not even recommend wasting time and effort in trying to get rid of them. They are beneficial to your marine environment and totally ridding your tank of them is almost an unattainable goal. When I do partials on my tank I will actually go through the bucket to catch any bristleworms that I may have siphoned out to put back in my tank, and I have many different kinds of corals. Try not to worry so much about them. They may be unsightly and you may have heard some horror stories about them but I can assure you they are harmless.

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[rdog]

Thank you for the response... Its great know'n there are people out that that like to help... There are some nice people left in this world... Thanks again!!!!!!

[Loverotties]

Yep ,there ok.