75 Gallon Fish Only Tank

[quazi]

WOW, Bare hands you have bigger Church Bells than most. I do agree bristle worms keep the sand clean.

 

I am with Hilary. I bare hand them, too. No issues!

 

So, do I have Big Brass Bells!?!

[Triggerfish31]

I always thought that Bristle Worms would eventual kill fish in the aquarium. The one pictured above I killed but was not sure if its safe to keep the others that are still in the aquarium.

[gmubeach]

Hilary:) bare handed thats amazing one time I put super glue on my hand and then touched one it was awful!

[jamal]

i touch everything barehanded including bristle worms 3or 4x larger than the one pictured as well as anemones and other stinging animals and i havent noticed any problems. but the red cross said i have very thick skin so maybe thats it. i would say if you are worried contrlling feeding and cleaning detritus will control their populations for free but i see no need. i had so many in my tank early on and was worried so i got a wrasse which worked a little too well and i saw detritus accumulate more so be sure its a problem first

[lanman]

I called the company up about getting a wrasse and got hounded because I did not have any live rock in my tank or some type of biological filtration. I have a 75 gallon tank, with 8 medium size rocks and one large rock in the tank, all of which have been in there since February. I am using two of the large Eheim Eco canister filter. I found out from the guy that I have fire worms instead of bristle worms. What other type of bio filtration do I need? I cannot afford getting a bunch of live rock for my system. I need some advice on what direction to go in. Or is it safe to just go ahead and by another fish for my tank.

 

Who ya gonna call? Not him, again, I hope...

 

It is NOT altogether easy to identify fire worms from other bristle worms, and absolutely impossible over the phone. (Hold the mouthpiece of the phone up to the tank and shout 'FIRE!' - I will be able to tell by the rustling sound which kind of worms you have. Trust me. I have a $149 fire-worm trap that will fix you right up!) Not to mention fire worms are uncommon. Someone posted on here a while back trying to find some - and didn't have much luck.

 

Medium and Large size don't mean a lot. You need 'about' 50-75 pounds of live rock in your system to keep the nitrogen cycle running. Do you have healthy fish in there already? Then your water quality will probably support a wrasse.

 

Do you measure your ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, salinity, pH, alkalinity, and temperature? There are 'norms' between which you should remain in order to have a healthy tank. There are also bristle-worm traps, if your population is out of control. I think they are about $10. Out of control bristle worm populations are caused by excessive fish feeding.

 

Hope all that helps.

 

bob