how to get rid of bristleworms / redworms..

what creature out there will devour all of my red worms crawling on my sand bands and LR. they are annoying. are they any threats to my aquarium? will hermits crabs eat them?

 

Not much will eat bristle worms. You can try making a trap. Do a search/google, there are quite a few designs out there. But I would honestly look more towards feeding habits. The worms will only get as big of a population as there is food to allow Try cutting feeding in half for one month, many of them may disappear on their own.

 

K+ PL. I agree with the cutting back of the feeding. Really they don't do anything wrong though for the most part. There are a few species that are predatory but very seldom found in the hobby. Most of the time they are just cleaning up our mess.

 

Actually, a dragon wrasse will devour bristle worms, i had one for two years, and never had a bristle worm in my tank during that time. They constantly dig and hunt for those things.

 

We actually bought a bristleworm trap - and ended up catching the little starfish that hide in the rock (and put them back)! We added a six line wrasse and no more bristleworms! Every once in a while, we'll see a "piece" of one floating around - yuck. The wrasse seems to keep them in check.

 

Why do you WANT to remove the worms? Bristles are harmless detritivores and beneficial if anything to a tank.
They are also a guage in sand bed and overall tank health.
Too little means an exhausted sand bed or some voracious sand bed hunting critter.
Too much means that your most likely overfeeding or not changing water enough as the excess nutrients keep more larvae alive leading to more adults and more excess food means more food for parents meaning more young....

Keep the tank clean, don't overfeed and enjoy the fact that you have scary, ugly worms keeping your sandbed clean for you!!

Happy reefing!

 

I agree 100% with Fragenstein, bristleworms are janitors........no reason to get rid of them.

 

+1

However if you are truely want them gone. I've found (by mistake) that red tipped hermit crabs love them.

 

Frag, what if you have one LARRGE one.. I have only seen one.. but his length is growing pretty quickly. I would guess he is around 9 inches or so at this time.

 

Handgun?