what the heck??! I cleaned my tank and it looks like some one dumped these things inside??!!

[Skynyrd Fish]

Get an arrow crab. They are super cool to watch eat those things. I had one for a couple years.

 

[Miller535]

Im gonna be buying an elegance soon. I did not think about it, but how long did you leave a big coral like this in the dip? And what did you use. I normally use Revive.

I dipped it first in Coral RX for the recommended time, then I dipped in Bayer. I do not know what came out in the bayer as it looks like milk. But the bristleworms came out in the Coral RX dip. A bunch of them.

 

[Miller535]

Would not be much different if he removed them and kept adding as much food to the tank. If he just pulls them out and does not change anything he can end up with a ammonia spike, possibly bacteria bloom, algae outbreak..

They are there because there is to much food or detritus. Most likely overfeeding or not removing detritus.


Bristle worm population grow and subside by the amount of food. Those bristle worms are doing him a favor.

He needs to figure out what is causing them to take off and slowly change it. Drastic changes could lead to a issue.

Which is why they need removed and he needs to feed less. The problem is multipronged, so they correction needs to be also.

 

[Tired]

Bristleworms coming off a coral frag after a dip doesn't mean they were hurting the coral. It just means they were hanging out on it. Either because it's a good place to hide, because there's food (detritus, coral poo) there, or both. Just like how micro brittle stars will be on coral frags sometimes, but are completely harmless. Coral dips don't discriminate between pests and helpful things.

 

[Miller535]

Bristleworms coming off a coral frag after a dip doesn't mean they were hurting the coral. It just means they were hanging out on it. Either because it's a good place to hide, because there's food (detritus, coral poo) there, or both. Just like how micro brittle stars will be on coral frags sometimes, but are completely harmless. Coral dips don't discriminate between pests and helpful things.

Except in the case of elegance coral it does when they are inside of the channels in the bone. It P.O the elegance coral. Bristle worms really like living in these channels, and in the wild it happens a lot, and for this reason they are one of the more common corals to get bristle worms as hitch hikers from. But even aside from that you miss the point that while some people are fine with them, some are not. And I am not. And no coral dips don't discriminate, but imo while some hitchhikers MAY be beneficial NONE are necessary. And for that reason I'll remove them to do my best to make sure that I do not introduce pest that WOULD be harmful.

 

[shred5]

Bristleworms coming off a coral frag after a dip doesn't mean they were hurting the coral. It just means they were hanging out on it. Either because it's a good place to hide, because there's food (detritus, coral poo) there, or both. Just like how micro brittle stars will be on coral frags sometimes, but are completely harmless. Coral dips don't discriminate between pests and helpful things.

That what people do not get is there is a balance in this hobby..

Everyone freaks over some bristle worms, cyno or flat worm etc. OMG you have to kill kill kill it. Most of these things are harmless and help keep thing in balance. Are there some bad things in the hobby that need to be removed absolutely but to freak out over every little thing.

People wonder why dinos is such a big problem now a days. No balance.. You remove one leg and the thing falls over.

That said corals should be dipped to prevent the other things from getting in.

 

[NJDragonet]

 

[shred5]

Except in the case of elegance coral it does when they are inside of the channels in the bone. It P.O the elegance coral. Bristle worms really like living in these channels, and in the wild it happens a lot, and for this reason they are one of the more common corals to get bristle worms as hitch hikers from. But even aside from that you miss the point that while some people are fine with them, some are not. And I am not. And no coral dips don't discriminate, but imo while some hitchhikers MAY be beneficial NONE are necessary. And for that reason I'll remove them to do my best to make sure that I do not introduce pest that WOULD be harmful.

If they are inside between the tissue and skeleton the coral is suffering already, I have never seen a healthy elegance with bristle worms.. Tissue usually covers that part of the skeleton.

 

[NJDragonet]

21 years and I have never even seen anything like this lol

 

[Miller535]

If they are inside between the tissue and skeleton the coral is suffering already, I have never seen a healthy elegance with bristle worms.. Tissue usually covers that part of the skeleton.

I saw it with my own eyes. And yes the coral is suffering, that was my point. And from what I read it is very common with this particular coral.

I have now had the coral for I am not sure, possibly 6 months, and it is doing well and has grown substantially in this time.

 

[lsawchuk]

THAT is a eunicid worm of some brand. Not a bristleworm. Bobbits are one of the bigger eunicids, and are the most well-known, but there are many smaller species, of varying levels of threat. Some are even small, harmless detritivores.

With that many, I suppose a die-off is possible. Hence the removal. I would ask why there are that many in the first place. OP, where did you get your rock, and how much do you feed?

I feed just daily... I added nothing new but moved my rocks around and then this happened.

 

[Tired]

How much do you feed?

Hitchhikers ARE, in fact, necessary. At least, some of them. It's much harder to keep a reef tank healthy without a healthy population of detritivores and various non-invasive algae types. Dipping corals to help prevent coral pests is all well and good, but you're going to have some difficulties if you try to run a tank with no little critters in it.

If a coral is doing poorly, bristleworms will often move into the area around it because it smells like food. They aren't coral predators, just opportunists.

 

[Thales]

The only problem here is that some people don't like bristle worms becuase they find them icky.
They don't care about healthy coral, they 'clean up' coral in trouble. If you have a coral in trouble, do something. If you don't, there isn't much reason to worry about bristle worms as their population adjusts due to food availability.
If anyone is thinking about getting an Arrow Crab, please don't forget that Arrow Crabs will eat more than bristle worms, so make sure you you are ok with other stuff being eaten if you get one.

 

[Marc2952]

Never seen that many before if i was a fish in that tank i would go carpet bombing from the sheer horror!!!

 

[Salemsoul]

Also they aren't terrible to have in your system, but I've never seen sooo many. I'd siphon a few out (or try too) then look the other way

 

[RVA REEF]

I like to play a fun game where I see how many I can pick up with my fingers without gloves

 

[Salemsoul]

low key!? HIGH KEY ;Hilarious ;Hilarious ;Hilarious ;Hilarious

 

[Texas Rick]

 

[Crashnt24]

I think everyone here is missing the key questions...

What is a "deep cleaning"? Bristle worms burrow and hide , they don't just congregate in a corner of a tank for a party. They are seeking refuge there. We need to know what you did for this deep cleaning. After all, this many worms are present in many tanks, they are just hidden in the rocks and sand. Something caused therm to leave their homes to try and escape the habitat. This "thing" might be a tank crashing, coral and fish killing thing. I would be worried, not about the worms, but what you did to the tank chemistry to cause max exodus.

 

[lsawchuk]

Thank you

While bristle worms CAN be part of a clean up crew, their numbers are tied to your feeding. They can only reproduce as fast as they have a food source. Either you fed WAY too much or something major happened that you did not notice.

If it were me I would reboot the tank. I would soak every rock in a fresh water dip and let them all squirm out, and I would net out the rest of the tank, and then put your rocks all back in. You do not want to kill that many worms in there and have that many rotting in there, they will nuke the tank.

can you help me... so they’ve eaten my fish. My tank smells bad. Nothing really worth saving at this point!! Should I empty the sand and everything and start fresh?? It is a bristle worm right? People are saying it could be other worms..