bristle worms

[Trebor]

Can you have too many? I took out some small rocks I had in the tank just to clean up the sand floor I put them in a bucket. This morning there was over a dozen of small bristle worms! Could this be a problem? I know they clean up waste but it sure seems like of worms in comparison to what I took out of the tank.

 

[NanaReefer]

A dozen? That's it? Lol I've got at least 10x that in my 26g without issues. Actually they allow me to feed my Scooter 3x a day frozen, without worry of rotting food mucking up my tank. Although creepy as heck bristle worms are a very good thing :)

 

[RalphsReef]

+1. They are a free cleanup crew.

 

[Danroth]

Everything I read previously suggested bristle worms were utterly horrible for your tank. Then, when I went to the show in Lansing last Sunday, I was surprised to hear someone get up and say they're excellent; not only for cleaning, but also baby bristle worms are a superior food source for tank inhabitants. I don't have one in my tank, as I pretty much got all dry rock only to start out with, but I'm seriously thinking about getting one.

My tank is 2+ months old, and I have a sand sifting star in there I just put in. Would the Bristle compete too much with the sand sifting star for food?

 

[NanaReefer]

Everything I read previously suggested bristle worms were utterly horrible for your tank. Then, when I went to the show in Lansing last Sunday, I was surprised to hear someone get up and say they're excellent; not only for cleaning, but also baby bristle worms are a superior food source for tank inhabitants. I don't have one in my tank, as I pretty much got all dry rock only to start out with, but I'm seriously thinking about getting one.

My tank is 2+ months old, and I have a sand sifting star in there I just put in. Would the Bristle compete too much with the sand sifting star for food?

First of all-that sand sifting star will SURELY starve to death in your 2 month old tank.
In my 3yrs of reefing NEVER have I heard nor read that Bristle Worms are horrible for a tank. Creepy as he!! Yes but an excellent part of our clean up crew.

 

[fragmatic]

Everything I read previously suggested bristle worms were utterly horrible for your tank. Then, when I went to the show in Lansing last Sunday, I was surprised to hear someone get up and say they're excellent; not only for cleaning, but also baby bristle worms are a superior food source for tank inhabitants. I don't have one in my tank, as I pretty much got all dry rock only to start out with, but I'm seriously thinking about getting one.

My tank is 2+ months old, and I have a sand sifting star in there I just put in. Would the Bristle compete too much with the sand sifting star for food?

Well they used to preach how bad bristle worms were, they look like killers. IMO you won't get too many because you can only have as many as can find enough to eat. More will starve.

 

[grumpy-crab]

+1 @ all of the above :) and the reason people use to say they are bad is because one day someone saw them eating a fish. Well the truth is that the only way they will eat a fish is if its dead or just about dead. Either way they are doing you a favor. I have snails and hermits die in my tank and i dont clean them out. The bristle worms will clean it all up for me. So im a believer that they are a must have in our systems.

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