what the heck??! I cleaned my tank and it looks like some one dumped these things inside??!!

[lsawchuk]

Someone please tell me what to do!! What is this and why??!!

 

[Kalinina]

Wow! I’ve never seen that many bristle works before!

 

[Hincapiej4]

There are bristleworm traps..seee if you can find how to make it

 

[NJDragonet]

Take a deep breath they are just bristle worms harmless good clean up crew

 

[PicassoClown04]

Holy. Crap. Those are bristle worms. Don’t touch them!!! They sting! How on EARTH do you have so many?!?! Pull them out with tweezers.... it’s gonna take a long time though

 

[NJDragonet]

People actually pay for those things pat on the back for all the reefers that have grown them

 

[NJDragonet]

But this is a crazy amount in 21 years I have never seen anything like this

 

[piranhaman00]

Wow that is creepy..

 

[terraincognita]

Wow. Holy ****** cow man.

I've never seen that. Ever. you must've had like a huge egg sack just hiding somewhere. based on the photos I guess it's all in that corner, probably had a hatching. CRAZY.

Ive seen pod hatches like this, but never a bristle worm hatch haha.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scoop em, bring em to LFS. I'm sure they'll take em.

Use gloves and stuff, they're a little prickly.

 

[NJDragonet]

Holy. Crap. Those are bristle worms. Don’t touch them!!! They sting! How on EARTH do you have so many?!?! Pull them out with tweezers.... it’s gonna take a long time though

 

[NJDragonet]

These are how big they get 100% try to remove them but be very careful they sting

 

[Mr_Knightley]

How the crap did you get so many bristleworms?! The only comparable amount I've ever seen was in a tank full of dead animals, and even then there weren't as many as there are here... as anything died recently?
As others have mentioned, they are good CUC but they sting really hard so be careful if you remove them. I say your best course of action would be to get a basslet of some sort (Chalk is a good one) and one or two arrow crabs, they both eat bristleworms voraciously.
Good luck man! I hope you can discover the reason for the epidemic.

 

[terraincognita]

Lol that's a bobbit worm. Dont' do that to him hahaha gonna give him a heart attack.

 

[FangsAndGames]

@revhtree should see this

 

[NJDragonet]

Lol that's a bobbit worm. Dont' do that to him XD

Wrong pic lol

 

[NJDragonet]

those are full grown bristle worms forgive me i have just spent the last 6 hours unpacking a shipment

 

[doodledreads]

Oh I have been there. Bottle traps work really well. However, your tank is able support that huge population of worms, which mean when you take significant worms out, you would be creating an imbalance where the extra food will spike your nutrients or worse, make something else explode. For me, it was hydroids and aiptasia - both of which are much worse then Bristleworms IMO. I would rethink your feeding regimen and slowly remove them.

 

[terraincognita]

Holy. Crap. Those are bristle worms. Don’t touch them!!! They sting! How on EARTH do you have so many?!?! Pull them out with tweezers.... it’s gonna take a long time though

Just siphon them bro. don't even try, just grab a siphon and suck em up.

 

[FangsAndGames]

When I saw the pick I thought it was just detritus. I second arrow crabs and chalk basslet along with some large wrasses.

 

[terraincognita]

Oh I have been there. Bottle traps work really well. However, your tank is able support that huge population of worms, which mean when you take significant worms out, you would be creating an imbalance where the extra food will spike your nutrients or worse, make something else explode. For me, it was hydroids and aiptasia - both of which are much worse then Bristleworms IMO. I would rethink your feeding regimen and slowly remove them.

Agreed re: established systems.

This tank seems newer and those worms are definitely babies.

You could leave them all, and I gurantee the excess will die off, and the remainder will find homes in your rockwork.

My worry is also that with not enough food them all dying might cause a tank crash.

Since they're new and babies I'd really recommend sucking most of them out.

I just personally would feel so creeped out everytime I stuck my hand in my tank after.... wondering how many are still alive..... lol.....

If we're talking "best practice" husbandry adding wrasse without a QT would be worse idea.

Arrow crabs but once they eat them all then what? Also this guy only has about 12 hours to react before they squirm off into the tank, and then finding them all is a worse idea.