WoW Godzilla Bristleworm.

So i just upgraded tanks and moved a few weeks ago. Got a 40 acrylic now and corals/fish are all doing good, a diatom bloom but nothin crazy. I fed my fish last night and turned the lights out, got up 15 minutes later and im not even kidding....... this bristelworm was sticking out of a hole proably a good 5 inches and it still had some of its body obviously still inside. It was probably a good 1/2" thick. There were a few others that were fairly large also. I have never seen anything this big in my tank before and there were so many of them last night its crazy.

Basically i picked up a six line early on hoping she would eat some, never has. I was thinking about picking up a coral banded shrimp to see what hed do, but im worried these worms are just too large to handle any sort of natural predator way.

By the way, im a 22 yr old student/construction worker and these things are scary as hell. any advice?

 

well if its anything like this one your sixline wont take it down

 

Just let them be, for the most part they are harmless detrovores eater and a excellent part of any clean up crew. And yes they get huge.

 

I do not think that is a bristle/fireworm. ;D

This link is an excellent reference for most common worms found in the home aquarium.

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/worms.html

 

may not be but sounds like one just huge
Giant worm found in Cornwall (From This is The West Country)

 

There is always the arrow crab route. They get big and can take out some of the larger bristle worms, not sure about ones as big as yours.

 

I saw one pop out of a rock in my system, he had about 5" exposed, i cant imagine how much of him was still in the rock.

 

u really dont think i should kill these? what if their bristles spiked one of my fish? or what if they are crawling all around my corals? I know they are scavangers and they seem to be REALLY active at night so im sure they do a good job cleaning up, but what about my snails? you cant forget about the snails.....

 

their populations are self sustaining... in the lack of enough decaying food they will starve themselves out. your populations will eventually settle into a reasonable amount

 

still, i just dont understand how something that big with pretty much otherwise known as porcupine bristles can not harm fish/corals.