suddenly bristle worms everywhere

[Leaellynasaura]

This is kind of strange. I have had my tank maybe 5 years and have not bought anything for it in many months livestock wise. I have never seen a bristleworm before, but today there are suddenly hundreds crawling around everywhere. Its kind of scary cause just a few weeks ago I was doing a lot of manual bubble algae removal reaching everywhere and not really looking... I did have a lot of irititation and cuts on my hand when I was done, but I figured it was the rocks and coral. Now I am terrified to be reaching around in there! Have any of you gone years with zero and then hundreds? How worried should I be about them hurting my skin?

 

[shwareefer]

Bristle worms aren't really a problem, fireworms are for getting jabbed. I'll reuse this picture that keeps getting reused for these threads lol.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Bristle worms aren't really a problem, fireworms are for getting jabbed. I'll reuse this picture that keeps getting reused for these threads lol.

This picture is great but I can still imagine I would have an issue seeing the difference in my tank when looking at them

 

[ariellemermaid]

This picture is great but I can still imagine I would have an issue seeing the difference in my tank when looking at them

Lol, I agree. Aside from length I’d say the pictures are pretty identical considering one is out of focus and one is perfectly in focus.

 

[shwareefer]

Wow, it's like posting in the comment section of a FishofHex video.

 

[Leaellynasaura]

I think I have the non fire worm. The key to me is the tiny red blobs on the firework also the harmless ones seem to look “low resolution” in the 2nd pick and in my tank.

 

[shwareefer]

I think I have the non fire worm. The key to me is the tiny red blobs on the firework also the harmless ones seem to look “low resolution” in the 2nd pick and in my tank.

Agreed. Also has the visible dark section.

 

[Yeos87]

I had the same problem before, my tank was clear of bristle worms until I added a live rock with a bunch of them hidden. I manually pluck out the big ones, and left the smaller ones to my coral banded shrimp and melanurus wrasse. I haven’t seen one since than. I mean those bristle worms are good for the reef, most experts welcomes them. But they give me the goosebumps.