Help tank crash and now I have a ton of bristle worms!

[bythepowerofzeus]

So I just returned home from a 2 month work trip to find my 40 gallon salt tank with 95% of the fish dead and bristle worms every where. I am pretty should my parents over fed the tank while I was gone, but the main problem is the bristle worms, there are so many of them. What should I do should I take time to slowly remove them til I get their number to a reasonable size of should I just redo the entire tank?

 

[alliw]

Wow!! Sorry I can’t help you, I’m new to the hobby but holy cow!!! That’s a lot of worms

 

[Tavero]

So I just returned home from a 2 month work trip to find my 40 gallon salt tank with 95% of the fish dead and bristle worms every where. I am pretty should my parents over fed the tank while I was gone, but the main problem is the bristle worms, there are so many of them. What should I do should I take time to slowly remove them til I get their number to a reasonable size of should I just redo the entire tank?

Awesome,
That's looks like right out of the horrorfilm slither. I think you should call Hans.

 

[Jmp998]

That is insane. They must have been feeding a ton.

What about-stop all feeding (you said fish are dead), and try baiting a large bristle worm trap? It would take a while to thin them out but might still be faster than a restart.

Or-wear heavy gloves, take rocks out and dip in a bucket (using a coral dip)? You might be able to get most of the bristle worms to crawl out of the rock and fall in the bucket without completely resetting.

 

[Cell]

What is the 5% fish that survived?

 

[Tavero]

On a serious note though:
The worms seem to be just one of the issues so in my opinion don't even bother with traps. Restart is the easiest solution because your animals are dead anyway right? If you want to keep the rocks you can try a peroxide bath.

 

[Brazilian Reefer]

Good luck, my friend

 

[bythepowerofzeus]

What is the 5% fish that survived?

A yellow watchman and a damsel

 

[tbrown]

You're going to probably want a Bristleworm trap. Killing those worms can potentially cause a nasty ammonia spike that'll kill the last 2 fish. Bristleworm trap, empty, reset, over and over.

 

[Reeflix]

personally i would get a dip, dip the rocks, get as many off as possible, then bristleworm trap

 

[vetteguy53081]

So I just returned home from a 2 month work trip to find my 40 gallon salt tank with 95% of the fish dead and bristle worms every where. I am pretty should my parents over fed the tank while I was gone, but the main problem is the bristle worms, there are so many of them. What should I do should I take time to slowly remove them til I get their number to a reasonable size of should I just redo the entire tank?

Thats an army. Green Bird wrasse will eat them, but they get big
Good option is a couple of arrow crabs which eat them like candy but not quickly

Arrow:

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

the bristleworms population will adjust itself based off the amount of food available. Give it a month they will be hard to find. If you kill them off quickly itwill create other issues they are actually many benefits to having them in your tank

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I may not be able to go to sleep now...

 

[mermaid_life]

Take out the rocks and just soak them in freshwater for a bit to cut down on the population!!!!

 

[shrimpnreefdude]

A yellow watchman and a damsel

So what's the update on this? I have some in my 13.5gal and I feel like the few I see when it's feeding time are already too many. This many seems like a long road ahead, no matter which way you decide to go.

 

[DJC]

That is totally insane, how so many must have been some serious over feeding going on in that tank

I would prolly agree with the above take time the herd will thin out if you got your feeding under control and a predator or 2 may assist with that one (arrow crab)

 

[CBonito]

Holy crap man!

 

[Arkardios]

 

[DJC]

That’s exactly what I said lol