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Bristleworm takeover?


tennisjad3

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Hi All,

I suspect my tank to be infested with bristle worms and would love any advice on how to remove them...

I have a 29 gallon reef and the only fish I've been able to keep alive are a cardinal fish and clownfish, who essentially spend all their time floating/outside rocks. Lately I've been spotting and removing so bristle worms, so I suspect there are far more than meet the eye buried within my rocks. Are there any tricks/tips to clearing them out? I'm assuming they've been killing and eating my other poor fish in their sleep :(

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Bristleworm populations are self-regulating based on available food.  If you are being overrun by bristle worms you probably have too much leftover food and detritus in your system from overfeeding and not cleaning frequently enough, which could be leading to other problems as well.  What are your water parameters?  Do you have any cleanup crew?

You don't have to worry about them killing your fish - they won't.  As far as removal, there are bristle traps available online, but the number one control would reduce what they have available to feed themselves.

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8 hours ago, Sierra Bravo said:

Bristleworm populations are self-regulating based on available food.  If you are being overrun by bristle worms you probably have too much leftover food and detritus in your system from overfeeding and not cleaning frequently enough, which could be leading to other problems as well.  What are your water parameters?  Do you have any cleanup crew?

You don't have to worry about them killing your fish - they won't.  As far as removal, there are bristle traps available online, but the number one control would reduce what they have available to feed themselves.

They won't go after fish? I put a self made trap in earlier today and haven't caught one yet, so maybe I overestimated my bristleworm issue. As for a clean up crew in the 29 gallon I have 2 pretty big blue legged hermits and 2 big turbo's snails on the glass. I only feed the fish twice a week and don't use any supps for the corals (it's an all softy tank). I've seen a few small worms deep in the rocks, but thought they were predators. If they aren't harmful to fish then I wouldn't say I'm worried about them as my coral growth is explosive.  

Maybe I've just been unlucky with my fish :(

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