Bristle Worms - To keep or not to keep

[poomoon]

after doing an overhaul, i caught almost 40 of these, the pic are the 'bigger ones' ... now when i look at my tank, i just see around 5 or so ... throw these back or ? thanks

[kaykay]

Damned wicked looking.

For me, I won't keep these. I won't want any accidental contact with any of them when I dip my hands into the tank!!

I'll make sure they're properly dead before disposing them too. Don't want to harm anyone else too.

[poomoon]

Thanks. Yeah that's what I'm afraid of as well. Total count, 45 removed. Didn't realize they multiplied that much !

[iskay]

Fish bait?

[bluemask]

Yucks! Place all caught bristle worms in tap water & they'll bye-bye. Do note that when they reached adult stage, they'll start to spawn. You'll know it when your water is cloudy

[Gouldian]

The bluish grey ones will pack a punch, I will throw them away.

The smaller pink ones are ok and are great detritus feeders, they will keep your sand bed churned and clean.

HTH

[tropic]

How in the world it gets that much? Wicked.

[oldrookiesjeremy]

chop them up feed to lps or better still feed it to rbta

[JeffL]

how did you catch them? amazing!

is there anyway not to kill, maybe release them somewhere which is safe and yet not harmful to the environment?

[MadScientist]

how did you catch them? amazing!

is there anyway not to kill, maybe release them somewhere which is safe and yet not harmful to the environment?

That place sounds like the sewer

[Gouldian]

That place sounds like the sewer

Mandai mud flats - the migratory birds will love to have them for lunch! lol

[poomoon]

The bluish grey ones will pack a punch, I will throw them away.

The smaller pink ones are ok and are great detritus feeders, they will keep your sand bed churned and clean.

HTH

Thanks. I guess just throw em away ... still have some I see during lights out anyway

[poomoon]

how did you catch them? amazing!

is there anyway not to kill, maybe release them somewhere which is safe and yet not harmful to the environment?

Did a major overhaul, so I had to remove all LRs ... after leaving the LRs out of the water for an hour or so, they came out, so just tweezed them with my 1-foot tweezer. Now during lights out, I still see over 10 or so (big ones that are obvious), so past 2 nights with the same long tweezer I just grab them and pluck them out. So far caught another 5 big ones .... the smaller ones I see i just leave them ... hard to catch anyway.

Release ? I don't think so ... For one I don't think they will survive unless you release them in the sea ... which also won't be a wise choice I guess.

[poomoon]

Mandai mud flats - the migratory birds will love to have them for lunch! lol

lol ... better watch em get eaten ... otherwise if not, some kid might suddenly pick them up ... OUCH !?!?!

[poomoon]

That place sounds like the sewer

lol ... exactly !

[poomoon]

chop them up feed to lps or better still feed it to rbta

can ?

[poomoon]

How in the world it gets that much? Wicked.

not sure as well ... unless there are certain conditions that they will motivate them to multiply so much, andthere are no predators for them in my tank

[poomoon]

Fish bait?

if you can help me hook them ? hehe ...

[clownfish_forever]

Throw throw. I also agree the big fat ones look gross... those small ones stil in tank left them but haha...they should multiple fast again.

[Lance Ng]

found this vid which might be of interest to you

[poomoon]

thanks. the color of it even without playing the vid already reveals it as the 'fireworm' ... that's definitely a no-no ....

[Lance Ng]

thanks. the color of it even without playing the vid already reveals it as the 'fireworm' ... that's definitely a no-no ....

Yea... can be quite nasty to ungloved hands too man!

[poomoon]

seriously .... tonight i was moving my gonio (rock base was about 2.5"), after lifting it off the sand bed, bristles started scrambling ... grabbed my long tweezers and got all of them. 4 of them 2-2.5" long, and 2 1", and another 3 baby ones (about 1cm). after my first posting here and, including this new catch, I've removed another ~30 .... is this really normal ? seems my tank is a good breeding ground for bristles ! I usually observe them when I turn of the wave, then they strat to come out, really creepy coz a lot ... but i haven't really seen them do any harm .... but still ... sigh ...