Holy bristleworms, Batman!

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mojo

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I was replacing all my rock this weekend, which meant removing all the existing rock and replacing it with new rock. When I was removing the old rock and sand, I was unearthing everything that had been living under the rocks for a year now. I picked up a large rock sitting on the bottom, and this thing squirmed out. I wasn't a happy reefer...

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It was about 10" long when fully stretched out...
 
Thats not cool. I don't care if they are ''harmless'', that thing could take off a finger.
 
DrNecropolis;243147 wrote: kinda looks like a fireworm to me
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Could be. Whatever it is, I'd rather not have it in my tank... :)
 
I found one that size while working at cap bay, the hard way.

I was just grabbing rocks to move to a new tank and it wrapped around my finger. I spent an hour removing spines. I wound up getting about 100 small blisters and my finger looked like a sausage for 2 weeks. It was not fun. I think i have a picture of it somewhere.

they are basically harmless, its just like getting an ant bite or the like. I seem to have a nack for getting spinned by small ones. but that one was aweful!
 
I do the same thing Barbara but don't have any gloves yet. Every time I see gloves I say "I need a pair of those..." but never get any. Heck, I've gone this long and it'll probably take something like that coming out of my system to actually make me get a pair.
 
I saw one of those in my tank last night! Mine is atleast 6in is all i saw! What should i do?
 
I will never understand why people want to get rid of these so bad. They are BENEFICIAL!!! Why not get rid of pods while your at it. There are bad bristleworms (ie- fireworms), but this is not one, and they are very few and far between. Youd see coral damage before you saw the worm. Imagine all the detritus taht woudlve been polluting the tank if taht thing wasnt in tehre.
 
That thing cant have been eating all that much detritus - that water was absolutely gross. As he was taking out the sand - you couldnt see more that 1 -2 inches into the tank, at most!
 
jmaneyapanda;243284 wrote: I will never understand why people want to get rid of these so bad. They are BENEFICIAL!!! Why not get rid of pods while your at it. There are bad bristleworms (ie- fireworms), but this is not one, and they are very few and far between. Youd see coral damage before you saw the worm. Imagine all the detritus taht woudlve been polluting the tank if taht thing wasnt in tehre.
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Ditto, the bigger they are the more poo they eat!!!
 
jmaneyapanda;243284 wrote: I will never understand why people want to get rid of these so bad. They are BENEFICIAL!!! Why not get rid of pods while your at it. There are bad bristleworms (ie- fireworms), but this is not one, and they are very few and far between. Youd see coral damage before you saw the worm. Imagine all the detritus taht woudlve been polluting the tank if taht thing wasnt in tehre.
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I considered putting it back in the tank. I really did. But the last thing I want to do is reach in there to pull out some rock and end up not being able to move my hand for a week after hanging on to one of these guys. I eventually decided that whatever benefit that I got out of the bristleworm was negated by the potential for injury.

On the flip side, bristlestars</em> freak me out, too, but I threw about 10 of those back in the tank...
 
Just out of curiosity, if there is not enough detritus in your system to keep a bristleworm that size well fed will it go for corals and fish? Or would the bristleworm never get that big to begin with (without the proper detritus situation)?
 
thedeper;243317 wrote: Just out of curiosity, if there is not enough detritus in your system to keep a bristleworm that size well fed will it go for corals and fish? Or would the bristleworm never get that big to begin with (without the proper detritus situation)?
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They kind of self regulate. Lots of pooh and such and they are numerous and get big. Keep their food source low and their size and numbers decrease.
 
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