Bristle Worms - Good or Bad?

[mark]

I know I have small bristle worms working in my refug and in my research, the story goes they are signs of a healthy tank and as scavengers help to keep it that way. On Saturday I added a cleaning crew to my 55g tank comprised of snails, some banded crab, a conch and to boot...I bought a Derasa clam.
On Tuesday, I noticed that I had bits and pieces of one of the banded crabs lying on the bottom of the tank. Tonight, I happened to discover 2 four inch bristle worms working on one of my snails. Of course they retreated when I hit them with the flashlight. It's possible the clam was dead but now I am wondering if these are what killed the banded crab. I also noticed my Derasa Clam had moved, but appears to be okay. Any thoughts are helpful, as I arm myself with pieces of nylon for an expedition if needed!!

 

[jason sartain]

I may be mistaking but I think Bristleworms only eat "waste" that is in the tank.I have 100's or even 1000's in my tank's and I've never seen them eating or attacking anything that's alive.Now if something in your tank die's,their all over it pretty quickly.
Hope this helped.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

There are different variety of polychaetes, and most are beneficial. They would not have killed any of the things you mentioned. A large fireworm or eunicid might, but it is unlikely you have one of these. Too often these guys get blamed for killing, when they are just cleaning up the mess.

 

[skriz]

Yeah, what Jeremy said.

 

[schwaggs]

+2 - IME they clean up dead things, not kill things.