Bristle worm taking over

[renato120]

I have thousands of bristle worms in my tanks. Some small l, and some already a good size.
Any fish or invert that will eat them? If I dont Do anything soon.... I will definitely be in trouble.
I know they can be good to a tank, but not when there are thousands of them. I heard they can kill fish when they grow.

 

[40B Knasty]

There is plenty of DIY bristle worm removal videos out there on YouTube. They even have boxes you can buy. Basically a container with holes. Food in it. They crawl in and can't get back out. Place them in at night and probably get about 40 easy if you are that infested.
The population is mainly decided on the amount of food you are putting in that is not being eaten, but you also don't want to starve them out causing more nutrients in your tank either. You can make one with a bottle and the cases of pens. They go up the pen cases and get stuck. Just make sure the bottle can stay submerged. Use tweezers to handle the removal if you plan on using the bottle again for another few nights. You dont want that fiberglass bristles they have sticking in you

 

[renato120]

I just made one! Lets see tonight if itworks!

 

[BlueCursor]

After you get the bulk of the worms trapped, consider some substrate cleanup crew members. The worms overrun when they have food.

 

[AdamNC]

I know Neon Dottybacks will eat them.

 

[Cflip]

I just made one! Lets see tonight if itworks!

Can't they just crawl back out the same way they went in?

 

[Labridaedicted]

6 line wrasse will eat them. Arrow crabs will eat them (although only sometimes not reef safe). Traps do well, though. My go to was always pantyhose leg with a piece of raw shrimp in it overnight. In the am, yank it and you have a nice squirmy bag full.

Has to be a ton of them to get me to do it, though. They're free cleanup crew that actually eat a lot of crap

 

[Labridaedicted]

I have thousands of bristle worms in my tanks. Some small l, and some already a good size.
Any fish or invert that will eat them? If I dont Do anything soon.... I will definitely be in trouble.
I know they can be good to a tank, but not when there are thousands of them. I heard they can kill fish when they grow.

Never heard of bristle worms killing fish. You might be thinking of bobbit worms. Now those are truly nasty critters.

 

[Blacktank]

I have had one get to a scallop and sometimes they can get to Young or sick fish when the sleep

 

[Blacktank]

Hobbit worms are really nasty

 

[40B Knasty]

I just made one! Lets see tonight if itworks!

Put some rocks or sand in there to weigh it down. Looks good man. You should be winning the war with that soon enough. I seen some videos pull out like 70. Maybe 10-20 per box

 

[laga77]

Get a Python cleaner and vacuum your substrate. Do this once every couple of months.