bristle worm pest or praise?

just thought I would add this yesterday had to clean out my calupra harvest and was pulling out rocks and shifting stuff around and probably had a few bristle worms on my hands. so this morning I was up and hand is numb and itchy. Well numb part is normal (I was a butcher for 7 years and hands have never been the same after that). So I do think that I have had a few bristles in me. Don't know if anyone else has had this but I have had worse. It is almost like messing with thorn bushes. my hands swell after that also.
Other then that I like my worms I think they are somthing neet to look at and do clean up my tank a bit from my over feeding.

 

I have been wondering this same question, which prompted me to search and find this thread.. I seem to have a lot these days, and have heard mixed things.. Most are pretty small, but I always heard if they get big they can be a problem.. There are a few big ones for sure in my tank, and I've been looking for things to rid them (have coral banded shrimp that i've only seen eating one and ignoring many every since).. I'm not sure if they are a problem, they dont seem to bother anything except me lately.. but then, they dont come out so much in the day..

Are big ones dangerous to anything? have many shrimp/gobies

 

The biggest problem with such worms is having hobbyists group all of them into being all the same, which is where their bad reputation came from along with most hobbyists not having an understanding of such worms and find them cleaning up a dead fish and then blaming the worms for killing the fish.
Are marine worms bad? or good? Simple answer - It depends on the species as it does with everything else.

I've collected and photographed a good many worm species and have provided their known food sources as best I could in the hopes that it will allow others to determine if what species they have is good or bad.

Hitch Hiking Marine Worms

Chuck

 

That was cool, I never minded any of the bristle or fire worms that I have seen in my tanks. When people see them and know you stick your hand in the tank they think your nuts. We moved about 4mo ago and I havent seen them since. I had the lr sitting in totes for 4-6 hrs w/o water and that might of been long enough to kill them. I am sure I will see them again. oh, they were getting about 4" long at least.