how do you get rid of worms

LuisA · Sep 20, 2009

how do you get rid of Eunicid worms. i pick up rocks and I keep finding them. what should i do?

bamachamp92 · Sep 20, 2009

Are you sure they are eucnid worms and not bristle worms?

LuisA · Sep 20, 2009

actually i just double checked pictures and you are correct. i found this picture

bamachamp92 · Sep 20, 2009

bristle worms are nothing to worry about unless they are out of control. Every tank with live rock in it will have bristle worms.

LuisA · Sep 20, 2009

ok I guess. what is out of control?

DaveMorris · Sep 20, 2009

I would never remove bristleworms from a tank. They are beneficial scavengers. If they get really big and creep you out, then I could see removing them.

LuisA · Sep 20, 2009

ok now i know i have been pulling these out. i have had a few that are 4 inchs and pretty wide.

starfish · Sep 22, 2009

Their population in a tank is driven by the amount of food being put in the tank. Fat big bristle worms I would evaluate my feeding routine. The more food available the more you have.

HAudioSolutions · Sep 23, 2009

I agree, don't worry about them. look at it as free scavengers.
+1 on the feeding. their food supply with naturally dictate the population of the worms.

wicked demon · Sep 23, 2009

I see it the same way with algea, aiptasia, cyano-bacteria, and bristle worms, they are all benificial ways that a tank could deal with excess nutrients in the water column (in different stages of organic decompisition), and they are all better than toxic water conditions. If you do not change the nutrient addition (feeding and organic dosing) and you remove any of these you should expect a bloom of one or all of the others, or rising nit and phos levels, ie; toxic water.
You might not like the way these things look but it is your tank trying to tell you somthing.

lightsluvr · Sep 27, 2009

wicked demon said:
I see it the same way with algea, aiptasia, cyano-bacteria, and bristle worms, they are all benificial ways that a tank could deal with excess nutrients in the water column (in different stages of organic decompisition), and they are all better than toxic water conditions. If you do not change the nutrient addition (feeding and organic dosing) and you remove any of these you should expect a bloom of one or all of the others, or rising nit and phos levels, ie; toxic water.
You might not like the way these things look but it is your tank trying to tell you somthing.

I guess I don't follow this post... How do aiptasia qulaify as " beneficial ways that a tank could deal with excess nutrients..." ? Are you saying that removing algae or cyano (or aiptaisa) will cause toxic water? :squigglemouth:

Please 'splain that one to this dumb Okie.

LL

lightsluvr · Sep 27, 2009

DaveMorris said:
I would never remove bristleworms from a tank. They are beneficial scavengers. If they get really big and creep you out, then I could see removing them.

Agree with Dave...they are generally beneficial. We had a 120G seahorse tank that was fed so heavily the bristleworms reached infestational levels:

These were under one small piece of LR:

Talk about creeping out:

They were so bad that our zoanthid colonies were being irritated constantly by the squirmy worms battling for food with the coral! The bristles got sent to worm Hades with an RO/DI bath before we recently moved rock and coral to a new tank...

LL

lightsluvr · Sep 27, 2009

Euchnid worms

By the way, when we were fresh water dipping for bristles, we did kick out a few euchnids that I was glad to send to the dark places...

Look closely at the bottom of the container -

Here is what one of those pests look like - you don't want one of these in your tank:

LL

colbrunn123 · Oct 2, 2009

A old panty hoes filled with clam meat works great for getting rid of them.I do this about every 6 months.Nothing i hate worst is picking up a piece of LR and put my finger on one of them.That makes you jump with pain.Some people call them fire worms.The pain you feel it feels like a fire in your finger.