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

[lsawchuk]

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.

So I did have a bunch of things die in December. I thought I cleaned everything but I couldn’t keep anything alive. I took out my live rock and rearranged it. While it was out I vacuumed my sand bed.. with the rock I took out I ran it under hot water... put it all back. And the next day it looked like that. Since I’ve ticked whatever was in the tank off, the worms ate my fish. And now it smells bad in the tank. I did get half out. I’m at a loss. Should I get rid of the sand and rock and start fresh??? Please help me

 

[lsawchuk]

Y'all calm down a little. Those "fully grown" bristleworms on the first page are fireworms, which ARE pests. Bristleworms like these have a sting, but it's not severe, and you shouldn't be handling your rockwork bare-handed anyway. Common bristleworms are detritivores, that are frequently blamed for killing a coral because they ate it while it was dying.

You do have a ton, though. Manually remove some, maybe via siphon? And consider using clove oil to humanely kill them- you should have clove oil on hand anyway, in case something gets badly injured enough that it needs to be euthanized.

 

[terraincognita]

So I did have a bunch of things die in December. I thought I cleaned everything but I couldn’t keep anything alive. I took out my live rock and rearranged it. While it was out I vacuumed my sand bed.. with the rock I took out I ran it under hot water... put it all back. And the next day it looked like that. Since I’ve ticked whatever was in the tank off, the worms ate my fish. And now it smells bad in the tank. I did get half out. I’m at a loss. Should I get rid of the sand and rock and start fresh??? Please help me

oh wow. I'm sorry :-(

Obviously we were all amazed at what happened but I do feel for you and the pain of a failing reef.

without getting into WHAT happened exactly, where to go from here:

If you don't feel comfortable researching how to clean your rock properly with a chemical bath, I'd opt out for new rock yes. There's way to many pests on those rocks.

You could just leave them out of the water for a really long time, but I recommend doing a full chem bath.

Otherwise just scratch it all and start a-new. sometimes it's a better feeling with a fresh start anyway you know more this time around I'm sure.

there's other options for sure.

This is just what I would do.

 

[Tired]

Yeah, the hot (I'm assuming tap) water scared everything out of your rocks. Probably killed a lot of the good bacteria and the life on them, too. Cleaning a tank like that isn't going to fix anything. What were you trying to get rid of?

Bristleworms didn't kill your fish. The bad smell is probably things on the rocks dying and rotting from being messed with, which likely caused an ammonia spike, which explains the dead fish. Bristleworms just eat dead things.

 

[CarrieHess]

I mean I would love some for my arrow crab if you are selling

 

[Mr. Fishy Fish]

I agree they're a great CUC, but heck no! What a horror. A lot of excellent advice on here to get rid of them. Personally I'd restart the tank.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I wonder if they are as good as bloodworms for fishing. Make yourself a trap and catch them!

 

[Chem1586]

These are how big they get 100% try to remove them but be very careful they sting

They do NOT get that big! That is a totally different type of worm.

 

[Strangewaterchange]

So I did have a bunch of things die in December. I thought I cleaned everything but I couldn’t keep anything alive. I took out my live rock and rearranged it. While it was out I vacuumed my sand bed.. with the rock I took out I ran it under hot water... put it all back. And the next day it looked like that. Since I’ve ticked whatever was in the tank off, the worms ate my fish. And now it smells bad in the tank. I did get half out. I’m at a loss. Should I get rid of the sand and rock and start fresh??? Please help me

Sounds like rinsing off the rock crashed your biological filter and the fish probably died from ammonia spike and then the bristleworms ate their bodies. There had to have been either overfeeding or build up of detritus not being removed over a long period of time to support that population of bristleworms.

 

[Mr. Fishy Fish]

Did you use tap water when u washed your live-rock with the hot water?

Edit: Also, a fresh start is always nice. It gives you a chance to do things you didn't the first time around.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

I'd keep some in a seperate tank, but do a full tank tear down and restart....that's a Freddy Krueger nightmare

 

[DangerDave]

You should change nothing. Set up a bristle worm store and ship them. Boom, you’ve just made a million dollars.

 

[Debramb]

I don’t mind them, if I see to many I wave my hand over them, they curl up and float up and catch with a net. I’d rather overfeed alittle and know they’ll clean up. BTW, I think if the bigger ones run out of food they probably just eat the smaller ones.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Ok, you have not really posted a thorough list of events leading up to this, just snippets throughout the thread, and people are rubber necking at the massive bristle worm pile up. It sounds like you decided to remove your rocks as part of a clean-up effort and run them under hot tap water. Then the bristle worms swarmed out and swooped into action cleaning the rocks. Then your fish died and the tank smells bad. Was that close to what transpired?

What I think occurred here, is that you have an older tank, that you feed really well, perhaps a bit too well. During the cleaning of the rocks under running hot tap water, this killed a bunch of stuff on, in and around the rocks. The bristle worm team swooped into action to clean up the sudden spike in death. However the running of hot tap water over your rocks also impacted your biological filter and your tank entered a period of cycling the biological filter. This resulted in high ammonia levels, which started a further cascade of death resulting in the demise of your fish and bad odour coming from the tank.

Where to go from here? As others have said, you can start over and remove and clean everything, or you can just do nothing at all. If you have no fish left alive, no need to feed the tank, you simply need to keep the tank running and let it regain it's balance. Things will settle down, stuff will die and stuff will be born to move the tank along through the stages on it's way to balance. There will be waves of creatures that seem to take over followed by those creatures disappearing to be replaced by something new. Eventually, the tank will be in balance and stop having massive blooms of creatures and ugly algae. At that point you can think about replacing your fish and inverts.

Our tanks contain massive food webs, well at least the healthy ones do. Most of the time, those food webs are hidden and opaque to us, but occasionally something transpires to pull the curtain back, and allow us a view into the food web. In your case the hot water rinse showed you how many bristle worms were present and working in the shadows to keep things in balance.

Personally, I would not remove any of them, assuming they are still alive and removable, left alone they will balance themselves out and will clean up the tank as things die.

It would be worthwhile to post a list of the events that lead up to this to allow people to help you understand what triggered the cascade for future reference.

Dennis

 

[Paulie069]

So I did have a bunch of things die in December. I thought I cleaned everything but I couldn’t keep anything alive. I took out my live rock and rearranged it. While it was out I vacuumed my sand bed.. with the rock I took out I ran it under hot water... put it all back. And the next day it looked like that. Since I’ve ticked whatever was in the tank off, the worms ate my fish. And now it smells bad in the tank. I did get half out. I’m at a loss. Should I get rid of the sand and rock and start fresh??? Please help me

Might as well start fresh since you already took out all the rock. Do you have coral?

 

[Dburr1014]

Ok, you have not really posted a thorough list of events leading up to this, just snippets throughout the thread, and people are rubber necking at the massive bristle worm pile up. It sounds like you decided to remove your rocks as part of a clean-up effort and run them under hot tap water. Then the bristle worms swarmed out and swooped into action cleaning the rocks. Then your fish died and the tank smells bad. Was that close to what transpired?

What I think occurred here, is that you have an older tank, that you feed really well, perhaps a bit too well. During the cleaning of the rocks under running hot tap water, this killed a bunch of stuff on, in and around the rocks. The bristle worm team swooped into action to clean up the sudden spike in death. However the running of hot tap water over your rocks also impacted your biological filter and your tank entered a period of cycling the biological filter. This resulted in high ammonia levels, which started a further cascade of death resulting in the demise of your fish and bad odour coming from the tank.

Where to go from here? As others have said, you can start over and remove and clean everything, or you can just do nothing at all. If you have no fish left alive, no need to feed the tank, you simply need to keep the tank running and let it regain it's balance. Things will settle down, stuff will die and stuff will be born to move the tank along through the stages on it's way to balance. There will be waves of creatures that seem to take over followed by those creatures disappearing to be replaced by something new. Eventually, the tank will be in balance and stop having massive blooms of creatures and ugly algae. At that point you can think about replacing your fish and inverts.

Out tanks contain massive food webs, well at least the healthy ones do. Most of the time, those food webs are hidden and opaque to us, but occasionally something transpires to pull the curtain back, and allow us a view into the food web. In your case the hot water rinse showed you how many bristle worms were present and working in the shadows to keep things in balance.

Personally, I would not remove any of them, assuming they are still alive and removable, left alone they will balance themselves out and will clean up the tank as things die.

It would be worthwhile to post a list of the events that lead up to this to allow people to help you understand what triggered the cascade for future reference.

Dennis

This X1000.
I read this whole post and was getting a little upset that everyone was trying to kill the cuc. That is exactly what the worms are. They are eating the food left over from overfeeding = balance... In your tank. (well, maybe... Another story) in my 20 years of reefing I have seen 1 worm get that big in any of my tanks. It did no harm at all.
Even if you adjusted your feeding, will that cause a instant massive die off? No, I don't think so. Some will die but over time but not all at once. Live rock and bacteria have a way to deal with that. But, now the live rock has gone into hot tap water and killed some of the bacteria and probably some of those good beneficial worms causing a mini spike in ammonia, killing the fish which in turn get eaten by what's left of surviving worms.
I would let things be. The tank will recycle its self and start over. You can even feed the tank. But you need to remember not to over feed. Just a pinch a day is all you need. I like to think a fish's stomach is as big as its eye. Helps me to judge how much to feed. And also, the fish are always picking on rock and micro-organizims you can't even see.

Good luck in your reefing and remember, nothing happens fast in this hobby but bad things. And usually because of human error.

 

[Paulie069]

This X1000.
I read this whole post and was getting a little upset that everyone was trying to kill the cuc. That is exactly what the worms are. They are eating the food left over from overfeeding = balance... In your tank. (well, maybe... Another story) in my 20 years of reefing I have seen 1 worm get that big in any of my tanks. It did no harm at all.
Even if you adjusted your feeding, will that cause a instant massive die off? No, I don't think so. Some will die but over time but not all at once. Live rock and bacteria have a way to deal with that. But, now the live rock has gone into hot tap water and killed some of the bacteria and probably some of those good beneficial worms causing a mini spike in ammonia, killing the fish which in turn get eaten by what's left of surviving worms.
I would let things be. The tank will recycle its self and start over. You can even feed the tank. But you need to remember not to over feed. Just a pinch a day is all you need. I like to think a fish's stomach is as big as its eye. Helps me to judge how much to feed. And also, the fish are always picking on rock and micro-organizims you can't even see.

Good luck in your reefing and remember, nothing happens fast in this hobby but bad things. And usually because of human error.

Like your post, I’ve always said,, I’m my tanks worst enemy,,, things will be going great in tank then I try to move something and the domino effect kicks in,, uggh

 

[Floppyfish]

Personally I’d syphon what you can out and add an arrow crab or two depending on your tank size. I’ve also made a trap in the past using panty hose by putting food inside of a piece and just letting them get tangled up in it. I just toss it after they’re all tangled in it and make a new one. Pretty cheap and disposable trap.

 

[EMeyer]

All this love for bristle worms makes me shake my head. Now lets be clear, the worms didnt cause the problem, and theres no need or way to get rid of the worms.

But seriously, screw those worms. Touch one and your hand swells up for days. And I see someone suggesting killing them "humanely"? um no.

There are plenty of cleanup crew options that don't cause nasty stings -- namely, all of them except for bristleworms.

Kill it with fire.

 

[Floppyfish]

Haha. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the spines suck in my hands and arms. They suck. Vinegar dissolved the spines, but I still always get the burn from them later.