what was this?

[ricksconnected]

yes i need to be more careful.
what dip do you use?
theres a starfish that lives in this rock.
i wish he didnt have to go to if i dip it.

 

[llewella]

Maybe you can pull the starfish out before you dip? There are several dips out there. One is made by two little fishes, one by seachem and some others.. I use Tropic Marine pro-coral cure. Make sure when you dip them to swish the corals around to help them detach and fall off.. and make sure the temp and PH is about the same as whats in your tank.

 

[llewella]

another thing you could do in this case is try to just trap the worm. If you dont have one and dont want to try to make one you can watch the tank at night with a flashlight after lights out.. It's better if you can put a red selephane or plastic over your flashlight and drop in a tiny bit of food close to where he is and then when he comes out to get it suck him out with a turkey baster, or use long tongs. You have to be fast though.. and dont know if you know but bristle worms hurt if you touch them bare handed..

 

[ricksconnected]

should be able to just use some tank water right?
how do you mix it up?
im sure every product is different but..........
does it kill everything right away or do they come out and then slowly die off?
do you rinse your corals after to make sure the product doesnt get in the tank as well?

 

[jennm]

ricksconnected;503938 wrote:
nope jenn, hes gotta go.
no creatures of that type needed in my tanks lol

Why not? They are part of what makes live rock, live rock. Small fauna are excellent janitors and clean up leftover food and waste. They function to help maintain water quality, along with the beneficial bacteria that inhabit the rock.

Worms, tiny serpent stars, amphipods, copepods - they are all part of the fauna that help clean the water.

Jenn

 

[ricksconnected]

this is what i was thinking about doing.

 

[ricksconnected]

JennM;503957 wrote:

Worms, tiny serpent stars, amphipods, copepods - they are all part of the fauna that help clean the water.

Jenn

lol i know what your thinking ms jenn and your probably right
in this case.
all is good but i aint trying to deal with a dang 6ft worm down the road.

 

[llewella]

as far as the dip I dont know if it's what everyone else does. lol but works for me.. I use tank water for sps but FW for softies and LPS. Freshwater is what gets the worms I think, not the dip. The dip will kill flatworms, nudi, red bugs etc but only the adult ones, which is why it is best to QT even after a dip.. but anyway..yea I dip for about 10 mins, swishing back and forth, and I use a turkey baster to blast it all over to make sure I dislodge any critters stuck on it. Then I do rinse in a fresh container of tankwater before putting it back in the tank.

 

[jennm]

Those Eunicid worms are very rare. Easily identified too. I've seen 2 in person in 20+ years in the hobby and 10 years in the trade.

Odds are strong that this specimen is harmless, and even beneficial. Why remove something that's good?

Also - if you've seen one, chances are there are dozens or even hundreds more that just haven't shown themselves - so are you going to spend weeks/months trying to eradicate them? That makes no sense.

And the minute you buy a coral with a piece of rock as its substrate, you'll probably introduce more of them. Why drive yourself crazy with that?

Older literature suggested eradicating any sort of worm. Nowadays, people are more enlightened, and realize that these creatures are an important part of tank ecology and they provide a valuable service and function.

They can also help you tell if you're over-feeding - huge worm population means you're probably feeding too much as their numbers respond to the amount of available nutrition.

Love the worms - they are good for your tank.

Jenn

 

[llewella]

Jenn is right.. even with dipping I still have bristle worms and tater worms in my tank.. just can't get around it.. Most came in with my live rocks a few that I missed in corals.. I dont really worry about them unless they get big.

 

[misu]

you must be dreaming if you really think you'll be able to keep a reef bristle worm free, hell I'll give you some in the chaeto for sure

my nano has a lot because there's no predators but the other tank has fewer because of the 6 line probably. I hate them too and I pick them up when I can but I don't think I'll ever get rid of them

 

[ricksconnected]

misu;503974 wrote: you must be dreaming if you really think you'll be able to keep a reef bristle worm free,

its like fleas on a dog, no you wont get all of them but you can do what you can to make him more comfortable.

 

[jennm]

Just curious, Rick - why so adamant about removing the worms, if they are good for the tank?

I wouldn't compare them to fleas - they aren't parasites. They are detritivores. Darned good ones too.

Jenn

 

[ricksconnected]

just dont like them.
dont want them to get as big as some
of the ones ive seen on here in pics.
be messin around in the tank and get
a good sting from one would suck.
i mean, everybody else pulled them out to get pics right?

 

[gnashty]

This thread is funny. I have a 6-8" bristle worm (maybe longer, i havent seen either end) in a rock my nem is attached too, it tries to take food away from the nem. I saw this once so far, now i love thy worms but this guy has gotta go! im skeered

can i use a 20 oz bottle as a mini trap? the area is kind of tight for a 2 liter

 

[ricksconnected]

now ya see what im talking about dont you?

 

[downtime89]

lol wow yea i have lots of bristle worms in my tank, i love em so good at eating unwanted junk from the tank lol rick your about as bad as my gf she wont even touch a little green inch worm lol

 

[ricksconnected]

yeah i dont suggest touching these type of worms bro.

 

[downtime89]

Oh i dont plan on it lol no worries there maybe with a pair of tweezers yea but not by hand

 

[chriswkbrd]

If it looks like the one in my pics, get him out. I had 5 or 6 and threw out the whole rock they were in. The could stretch out twice their body length. He escaped b/c he was in a different rock, but I drilled him out. But if he doesn't look like this one, it is probably harmless. I had bristle worms and the would eat any left over food, detritus.
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