I’m tired of the bristle worm bigotry

[zalick]

got ant documented reports of loosing fingers to bobbit worms

 

[king aiptasia]

Please. I insist.

Now I have quite a few other species of roaches, most of course aren't pest species but these two do have indoor pest potential.

As for the weevils, I couldn't find any in the pantry today, I'll check the pasta more thoroughly tomorrow and nothings been sitting long enough for the meal moth silks to form, I'll keep you in mind and take a pic of some buggy flour next time I see it, pm me and I wont forget

 

[Hadla]

Get some rubber gloves. You shouldn't be putting unprotected hands into your tank anyway. Who knows what is in your tank and could be a possible threat to you like bacteria.

Gloves

To all you people getting stung all the time, throw on some gloves.

I seriously read through the whole thing waiting for someone to say wear gloves when handling rock or corals or anything that the worms could be hiding in! I was lucky enough to just get “stung” once and now I wear my elbow length gloves when handling any rock. And like the first guy said, protect yourself from who knows what could enter a tiny scratch or wound.

I will happily be buying some bristleworms on eBay for my 225s live rock. No corals, just a football sized Stars and Stripes, much smaller porky, and two snowflake morays. Which basically means there’s no other “clean up crew” I can put in there to take care of leftover food and detritus.

 

[Hadla]

I agree. I am delighted to see new creatures and life spring up in my tank. I've been in the hobby for 30+ years. Way back I use to look for real live rock cause I knew there would be life forms on those rocks.
I upgraded to a 90 gal from a 40 I'd had setup for many years. It's been interesting watching the worm population explode than settle down.

same! I absolutely love seeing what comes out of live rock! I’m waiting for the lucky day when I’ll actually find a mantis shrimp! The only hitchhiker I’ve had a big issue with are oenone fulgida worms. If you’ve never had to deal with or even heard of them, you’re lucky. They’re confined to my biocube and have killed two different mantises which is why I hate them with a passion. I’ve been trying to get a hold of one of the few conches that will eat them for a few years now so I can finally put snails and hermits in there.

 

[king aiptasia]

same! I absolutely love seeing what comes out of live rock! I’m waiting for the lucky day when I’ll actually find a mantis shrimp! The only hitchhiker I’ve had a big issue with are oenone fulgida worms. If you’ve never had to deal with or even heard of them, you’re lucky. They’re confined to my biocube and have killed two different mantises which is why I hate them with a passion. I’ve been trying to get a hold of one of the few conches that will eat them for a few years now so I can finally put snails and hermits in there.

what makes them so bad?

 

[JPM San Diego]

It might help to split this conversation into two threads as there is more than one species of bristle worm. Some are tiny and some are huge. The diminutive worms are less dangerous and less prone to eat one's livestock. The larges ones, not so nice.

 

[brokeaquarist]

Never has there ever been such a perfect cuc member of our tanks that is so hated. They only come out at night, breed perfectly to the scale of detritus in your tank, you only have to buy them once, don’t harm anything, and are wildly effective.

All of that said, some pompous nitwit insists on telling a beginner to “remove it immediately” (with three exclamation points) from their tank just about everyday.

I will tolerate this no longer and am proposing a complete ban on this kind of discrimination.

Bristles are a great addition to every tank, here are my pals doing the heavy lifting at night. View attachment 1930934

I agree, but I hate shaking them off my frags when I have to move them!!! They creep me out a bit!

 

[RMS18]

Never has there ever been such a perfect cuc member of our tanks that is so hated. They only come out at night, breed perfectly to the scale of detritus in your tank, you only have to buy them once, don’t harm anything, and are wildly effective.

All of that said, some pompous nitwit insists on telling a beginner to “remove it immediately” (with three exclamation points) from their tank just about everyday.

I will tolerate this no longer and am proposing a complete ban on this kind of discrimination.

Bristles are a great addition to every tank, here are my pals doing the heavy lifting at night. View attachment 1930934

Sorry to hear you need them to keep your tank clean! JK - personal preference, but like a lot of topics some people don't post information for both sides, rather their one sided personal view. Personally I'm not a fan of these guys, and I do remove when I see them. However in conversation I bring out the positives that they don't harm anything in our systems, good cleaners but pose a risk to our fingers. From there it's up to the tank owner to decide. You don't need them to have a successful tank at all. Animal selection for our tank is personal preference for sure.

 

[AnotherReefHobbyist]

Ummm ooops, I just picked 8 of them out of a new coral I got....... welp

 

[Hadla]

what makes them so bad?

they take advantage of crustaceans molting and smother them in slime they secrete, same with snails and they’re very fast moving so it’s almost impossible to catch the whole worm

 

[Hadla]

OENONE FULGIDA WORM

I've been in this hobby for about 5 years. I have a 180 reef tank. I keep up on everything and for the last few years I wasn't able to keep certain lps for no reason and some stuff would die for no reason. Long story short every night I look At my tank with a flashlight and I'm blown away what I...

www.reef2reef.com

Critter Identification: Oenone Fulgida – First Time Fish Keeper

Oenone fulgida, also known as The Orange Worm and Clam Worm, is a predatory marine worm that preys on snails, molluscs and clams. Some aquarists report them predating on LPS polyps too.

firsttimemarinekeeper.com

 

[syrinx]

Annelid worms compromise likely the largest family of animals with over 22k species-so yes there are good and bad bristleworms. However size has little to do with them being bad for corals fish etc. The one thing about a large population of the large bristleworms is if the population crashes you can lose a tank. I had a customer who loved her bristleworms and overfed tank for them. She had a Ph crash and they started to die off-I pulled out a third of a 5 gallon bucket out of a 42 bow front! The largest were around 3 feet long and the width of my thumb. She had no idea they were so big-and they never hurt the corals and fish. Once again large or small- they can be good or bad. As with everything moderation is the key. Her tank was saved and she continued to have success for several years until she could no longer care for it due to age. It was her first aquarium and a full blown reef, and she started it at retirement.​

 

[ThePurple12]

PSA- Bobbit worms are not the same as bristleworms!

 

[Hadla]

PSA- Bobbit worms are not the same as bristleworms!

Neither are fulgida worms X(

these are all predators! Bristle worms aren’t!

 

[king aiptasia]

hmmm

 

[Crabby48]

Spaghetti and bristle worms from ipsf.com Along with other critters. Bristle are even good grilled with little olive oil

 

[king aiptasia]

Spaghetti and bristle worms from ipsf.com Along with other critters. Bristle are even good grilled with little olive oil

spaghetti worm, an italian specialty

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Bristle worms are fine... until they overpopulate

 

[GARRIGA]

I myself am looking for bristles. Just not the fire with those pesky spikes. They seem like the perfect detritus mop although I was told the same about Nassarius who don’t seem to like my crap