These are bristle worms, right? Not fireworms?

Joe31415 · Mar 14, 2024

I have an invert-only QT that hasn't had any inverts added to it in a few months. However, I had a flatworm issue so I picked up a sixline wrasse, and now, because of the fish or the extra food, I'm having a bit of an algae outbreak. Yesterday I picked up some astraea snails from my LFS, acclimated them for several hours and never saw anything in the bag they came in and now I'm pulling these out of the tank. Maybe it's just due to the timing of the snails being introduced to the tank, but it sure seems like they hitchhiked in with them. It just seems odd that I didn't see any of them in the bag the snails came in, all the snails are alive and these worms are huge. The 10 or so I've already plucked out would, I don't think, have been able to fit inside a shell with the snail still in there. The only other thing I can think of is that they were already in there and the snails disturbed them. But that doesn't seem likely since if they were already there, they'd have to have been there for a long time and between it being a small, bare bottom tank that I spend a good amount of time staring at, I don't think I would've missed them.

So, bristle worms or fireworms?

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Crabs McJones · Mar 14, 2024

Look like bristle worms to me

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Mar 14, 2024

You have to remember that there is more than one type of "fire worm", and almost all are just as harmless as regular bristleworms. There is one, the bearded fireworm (Hermodice carunculata), that is quite distinctive and not often found in tanks that haven't added ocean live rock (and still not all that common on the rock).

Nburg's Reef · Mar 14, 2024

Either way, avoid touching. Over the years I have developed a sensitivity to them and now get a hard small bump at every bristle hair that gets stuck in my fingers and itches like crazy for a few days if I don't use tape to pull them all out. Usually appears the next day and sucks. These and euphyllia - I think I have heard other long timers getting sensitizations to these as well.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 14, 2024

With these worms, while not welcomed in any of my tanks are regarded by many as clean up crew as they eat both uneaten food and detritus.

coralboi56 · Mar 14, 2024

All fire worms are bristle worms, but not all bristle worms are fire worms. Both belong to the family polychaete and the annelid genus

Joe31415 · Mar 15, 2024

Luckily I don't have my hands in this tank very often. It's a small 20g AIO, so the majority of what I need to do, I can do with a long hemostat (and usually still even keep my hands dry). But I still don't want them in there. I'm sucking them out with a turkey baster as I find them, but a lot of them are too big to get sucked up which presents it's own problems.

I still can't believe all of these came in with some snails, and without me noticing it. I may be back at that LFS this weekend, I'll have to look at the tank they came from and see if there's more visible in it. But I'm not sure how else it would've happened. I spend enough time starting at every inch of this tank, I have a hard time believing I would've missed this many for any length of time.

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Mar 15, 2024

Joe31415 said:
Luckily I don't have my hands in this tank very often. It's a small 20g AIO, so the majority of what I need to do, I can do with a long hemostat (and usually still even keep my hands dry). But I still don't want them in there. I'm sucking them out with a turkey baster as I find them, but a lot of them are too big to get sucked up which presents it's own problems.

I still can't believe all of these came in with some snails, and without me noticing it. I may be back at that LFS this weekend, I'll have to look at the tank they came from and see if there's more visible in it. But I'm not sure how else it would've happened. I spend enough time starting at every inch of this tank, I have a hard time believing I would've missed this many for any length of time.

They are very good at hiding in/under rocks. Usually a big increase means you're overfeeding the tank...