Bristle Worms

Besides trapping and manual removal, does anybody have a good suggestion as to how to remove Bristle worms? I seem to be getting a great deal of them, thus far they are harmless, but, I found one crawling along my radioactive green zooanth colony last night and...well he had to go bye-bye! I know they are good scavengers and supposed to be harmless, but that doesn't mean I want them all over my tank! These are the red buggers with the white legs that are so common. Thanks!

 

Normal for newer tanks to have higher populations of bristle worms, add to that probably over feeding.

The population will die back if you cut back on feedings, they eat they reproduce.

Unfortunately not every beneficial creature in this hobby is physically attractive but I would sure not waste my time removing them, pointless really when decreasing available food source is the best remedy.

By accident I found out the Arrow Crabs absolutely love to eat bristle worms big and small. Also by accident I found that Arrow Crabs grow large quickly and become a PITA. Some wrasses will eat smaller bristle worms as well.

 

Like you said they are great additions to a clean up crew. If you are being over run there is an underlying cause. Try to cut back your feedings. It is likely that there is an abundance of left over food, without a food source they wouldn't be there and rapidly expanding. So after cutting back my feedings I would stick with manual removal, I don't believe in chemical solutions unless it's a last resort. You can try removing rocks one at a time and giving them a FW dip. Be aware that this will kill off beneficial bacteria, so only do a small portion of the rocks at one time. This should flush them out of the rocks, however if you don't address the underlying problem, they'll just return to multiplying rapidly.

Corailline beat me to it. lol.

 

I had the same problem and everyone told me to cut back on my feedings. I thought that was would never worked and tried traps and an arrow crab. Did nothing to the population. Then I cut back feeding by a lot and they basically disappeared. Simple but ABSOLUTELY works.You only really need to feed your tank once a day. I know others will disagree, but that is what I do and it works

 

Thanks, I found a cool article on Reef builders on how to make a trap out of an opaque container (like a left over flake food container)Bristle Worm Removal from Saltwater Aquariums I may give that a try. Also, I found out that trumpet corals will eat bristle worms! I came home from bowling last night and found one in the trumpet corals "mouth" maybe I need some more trumpet corals!

 

Bristle Worms are Yummmmmmmmmyyyyyyy ;D