Bristle worms good or bad?

[dnyce]

I seem to have a small bristle worm population going on. I see them mostly when I feed frozen food, and I 've probably counted 10 or more, and some seem to be getting bigger. I saw two that are about 4 inches long.
Should I be concerned? should I get a six - line wrasse or something to control the worm population? Would the six - line become agressive toward the other fish (1 hippo, 2 clowns, 2 chromis damsels)?

 

[deelucky]

there not that bad,they are scavengers thats why you see them when you feed frozens.never down any harm in my tank,just dont touch them cause you'll get a nasty sting.as far as a sixline goes,ive heard mixed review as far as there disposition goes. you could do a search here on MR and then decide.

 

[steveo32]

The bristle worms are good for getting the dead stuff in the tank. The thing i 've read was to watch out if they get really big or if you get a huge population of them

 

[e.muehlbauer]

My tank used to be loaded with them...any food reached the bottom, out they'd come. Anything dead was completely gone within hours. Now I have absolutely none. My guess is that they were all eaten by my blue-sided (tricolor?) wrasse...too bad...I miss them. Eric

 

[SaltWaterN00b]

I bought a sixline when i noticed the worms and he literally would just watch them..not even pick at them. I do see my coral banded shrimp go for them all the time though. I have big one in the tank and they have never bothered anything in my tank.

 

[basiab]

If you have them it means you are leaving plenty of food around for them to eat. So yes they are good because they clean up the place but it may mean you are overfeeding if you get too many of them. I would get rid of the very large ones but in any case they are just garbage cleaners.

 

[SIReefer]

I had a number of them in my old tank and they never appeared to do any harm to the tank inhabitants. They would come out at night and eat up all the crud. Rarely saw them in the daytime though. I did get rid of the larger ones just in case.
I believe you are ok w/them as long as they don't get too large.

 

[dnyce]

I started feeding a little more when I added the Hippo tang, because he seemed to be taking the bulk of the food from the others, and the turbo snails are eating the algae off the clip that I put out for the hippo. It's a vicious cycle but I guess I should cut back on the food a little bit. I only feed frozen (prime reef) food maybe once a week or less because the fish don't eat it all. If there isn't enough food for the worms to scavenge will they die off?

 

[Bob 1000]

I think they are good, because I add blood worms to my fresh water systems to eat uneaten matter... And they hang out at the bottom to also.. But you can't buy them...

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Bristle worms, good. Fireworms bad. And don't touch either one or you could get stung.

 

[thepudge]

They're good and normal. You probably have a couple of big ones in your tank too.

 

[yeahcheetah]

The 6-line wrasse won't help clearing the worms out. But I did lost a purple reef lobster, probably due to these worms attack while it was molting. And I also see bits of anemone tenacles diced off that I also tend to blame on these worms. There are other cleaning crew doing the same job, so I would personally get rid of them as much as I can.

 

[Deanos]

How would bristle worms "dice off" an anemone's tentacles?

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

How would bristle worms "dice off" an anemone's tentacles?

That is a good question. Crab yes, Bristleworm maybe not.

 

[yeahcheetah]

That is a good question. Crab yes, Bristleworm maybe not.

I used to have a sally lightfoot that grew too big, and an emerald crab that I know harmed my anemone so they are both gone. Now the only crab I have is an anemone crab that takes home in the anemone, is he likely to harm his own home?

 

[DevIouS]

Another Hitch-Hiker.
Definitely not a bristle worm that attacked your lobster or anemone.

 

[dnyce]

I cut back on the feeding and I added a diamond goby to the tank (for algae issues), I don't see the worms as much, but I'm pretty sure the goby isn't eating them. Or is he? Maybe they are keeping to the rock since he's stirring up the sand so much. I know they're still in there...