Wrasse help?

[Guest rennfamily]

Our tank has a lot of bristleworms. I know their not bad for the tank unless they become abundant. I'd like to try and keep them in check and I had heard that wrasse fish will eat them. Does anyone know if it is a speficic kind of wrasse? I obviously don't want to add something to my tank that's not going to help.

 

Thanks

Holly.

[Guest D33rex]

I know arrow crabs are supposed to eat bristleworms, but they are also supposed to be aggressive towards anything smaller than them...fish,crabs,shrimp etc

[DCDeacon]

The six line wrasse is supposed to be a help with bristleworms. You can do a Google search and find a number of sites that indicate this is a good choice, such as:

 

http://www.emarinefish.com/reefsafewrasse.asp

[HowardofNOVA]

Holly,

Take a look at the Yellow Canary Wrasse.

I've had 2 of them, currently, my one is about 4" long.

Beautiful color, never had a problem with messing with shrimp, fish or corals.

Not sure if they eat bristleworms though, but never seen on in my tanks either. Cool fish!

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11....5dff803

Howard

[Lee Stearns]

My 6 line is big and fat and constantly searches the rocks during the day. However I know he will not tackle large bristle worms as I have seen several and he just swims by them- he may be eating the smaller ones though I have not witnessed it. I do know he relishes what ever pods he comes across.

Any one know of a simple trap or way to catch the larger bistle worms? I have often thought that it would be good to remove the big ones- maybe chop them a bit and see if anything would eat a chopped up one- maybe diped in a drop or two of selcon for enticement. :D

[OUsnakebyte]

Does anyone know if sixlines are compatible with mandarins?  I thought I remember hearing reports of someone's sixline harrassing and killing their mandarin...

[Guest Tmtplyb]

I don't know about others tank, but I alway has the sixlines with my mandrin for the last 3 years, there aren't any problem b/w them, mandarin has a slimmer stuff to protect it. I don't think any fish want to mess with him.

[DCDeacon]

Anyone have any experience with their six-line (or other wrasse) messing with their shrimp? I'm talking about peppermint, cleaner, etc., not the mantis or pistol variety.

[Lee Stearns]

Yes If the peppermint shrimp are very small when you put them in the wrasse sees food- I made that mistake - but I have never had mine mess with my larger cleaner shrimp.

[pedalpower]

I think you should be looking at Dottybacks.  My Bicolor-Dottyback is only fish I have seen eat bristleworms.  But, I never have seen it take on large bristleworms.  Be careful though the solution may be worse than the problem.

 

I've also seen my 6-line wrasse try to snack on cleaner shrimps regardless of size.  I always thought the wrasse are more inclined to take care of flatworm and the snails that like snacking on clams.