Bristle Worms

[lebloom]

I was watching my tank this morning and saw this long worm crawl out of a piece of my LR. This thing may have been 6" long. I have lots of little bristle worms all over my tank but have never seen one bigger than 1 1/2" long and they are pink in color. The larger one was the color of a fishing worm, grayish black. Is this one good for my 75gal tank? I don't have much in my tank besides 40# LR and a few hermits. I have 3 fish, 1 clown and 2 yellow tail damsels.

 

[Boogiechillin]

They are great detritivores. Some people get uncomfortable with the bigger worms and opt to pull them out, but I've never had any reason to remove a bristleworm from my tank. I've got a couple 10-12" worms in my system...kinda freaks you out when you find them by accident, but they do a great job at tank cleanup after dark.

 

[Toooloud]

agreed,

They are great things, now the only issue i have had.,. was once i had a leather coral that was dieing, i was trying to save it.. but becouse it was dieing.. my 10 inch worm decidied to dig into it and eat it.. like surpent stars, they are scavengers... when somthing is dieing they tend to eat it.

 

[lebloom]

So, the bristle worm is it just like a common worm? If you happen to try pull it out and it splits will it remain alive? I did try pulling this one out but it split apart and the part that remained in my tank diappeared into the rock.

 

[OrionGirl]

Yes, if enough of the worm remained intact. You're better off leaving the worms in your tank--they help, not hinder, the general well being.

I tend to think that if the bristleworms are chowing down on a dying coral, that means it was beyond the point of recovery. I've never sen bristleworms go after an injured coral that later recovered, just on ones that were on the way out.