Bristleworm problem

Lynnzer

Community Member
Review score
+0 /0 /-0
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2022
Messages
45
Reaction score
28
Review score
+0 /0 /-0
Location
Durham
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I recently started to notice occasional loss of fish in one of my tanks. This tank had bristleworm in it, although I didn't know how many.
When I say I lost occasional fish, I mean just that. They disappeared.
I do regular water parameter checks so it wasn't ammonia or nitrite that killed the fish. Anyway, I'm taking delivery of a new tank in the next week so I decided to pull this tank apart and split the fish into containers for now, and clean up the sand, rocks etc. In the process I must have pulled out at least half a dozen worms. Because of this I was wary of them being potentially dangerous to the other inhabitants. In any event I took out all those I could find.
I then started another tank and placed rocks into it that I had presumably cleared of worms, then added the fish and shrimp which have all been very healthy. This tank is also spot on for water parameters.
This morning I noticed that my flame shrimp was laid on the bottom of a rocky cave apparently motionless. I got a cree head-light and shone in and lo and behold the shrimp was encoiled by a bristleworm. Dead with it's head eaten and leaving access to the inner shell area with plenty of flesh.
Like I said, there's nothing wrong with the water that could have killed the shrimp, and in fact I also have a cleaner shrimp in the tank that might have suffered as well if water chemistry was the problem.
My own conclusion is that if the new tank was detritus free, the worms have taken to eating live critters. IT ... OR THEY, HAVE TO GO.
DON'T TRUST THEM.
 
Last edited:
AquaCave Logo Banner
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
AquaCave Logo Banner

Polyp polynomial: How many heads do you start with when buying zoas?

  • One head is enough to get started.

    Votes: 27 10.6%
  • 2 to 4 heads.

    Votes: 145 57.1%
  • 5 heads or more.

    Votes: 65 25.6%
  • Full colony.

    Votes: 10 3.9%
  • Other.

    Votes: 7 2.8%
SR
Back
Top