So Many Worms

[Squishie89]

Before putting the tank to bed I noticed a small worm, about a centimeter long, and a millimeter wide. I tried to ID it, and pretty sure it was a baby bristle worm. I put it back in. Then I was doing my usual night check on my tank and I look towards the bottom of the tank and on the left front and middle front pane of glass was 20+ baby bristle worms. Then on the right front side there was a tumble weed of super tiny baby bristle worms, 30+ of them. I am not sure what happened. I saw a similar worm about a month ago, but did not think much of it, otherwise I have not had any bristle worms or at least none that made themselves known.

Weirdly enough, I have been having limpets and stomatellas breeding pretty profusely over the past 2-3 months. No idea if this is connected.
My best guess is that I am just really, really over feeding and just have way too much food in the tank and all of these critters are just in paradise.

Now the questions, what should I do? Should I be worried? Should I just try to start decreasing my feeding? Traps? Arrow crab/coral banded shrimp? I have not noticed any possible bad bristle worm activity; corals are great, fish are fine, inverts doing good.

[Mattiejay6]

Bristle works are just controlled through feeding and some fish eat them too.

 

I would just decrease feeding some..

 

The sign of bristle worms is a good thing.. Means it is a nice healthy system. They are great scavengers eating the left over stuff. Their population can boom with too much feeding.

[angel not fish]

reduce feeding + do yourself a favor and add a six line wrasse

[lutz123]

Sounds like a healthy tank to me!

[Orion]

Over the past few months I have spotted baby bristleworms here and there. Lately I haven't seen any. They would usually come out during feeding time. However, yesterday, I saw a rather large bristleworm eating some leftovers. I think this worm ate all the others!

 

[John Ford]

If you want to lower the bristle worm numbers you will have to cut back on feedings or get something that eats them.

I used to have a ton of stomatellas. I enjoy watching them. I think it was my emerold crab that took them out. It's the only thing I have to blame it on unless my acans and anemones are swallowing them when they pass. (It's all speculation) I'm down to only a couple. Now that my emerold is in the sump I'll have to see if their numbers come back or if I don't have the nutrients to support them anymore.

 

I think bristles have their part but sounds like you have a lot!

[Jason Rhoads]

I wouldn't worry about this at all. Good job on creating a thriving tank

[Ryan S]

They are fine when they are small. But give them enough time to grow big, then see how much fun they are! 

[Origami]

+1. Healthy tank and just part of your clean up crew.

[Squishie89]

An interesting update. Tonight I counted about 8 babies on the glass. Nothing even close to last night. So I am pretty sure something was going on. Either the brittle stars were spawning (they were all over the rocks, out and exposed, some floating through the water) or the worms were spawning, or both were spawning.

 

Part of me is so curious as to what happened. Did the stars spawn, which attracted the worms? Vice versa? Do they spawn at the same time? Were they all playing a prank on me? The ocean, and our tanks, sure are full of amazing things, even bristle worms.

[Sugar Magnolia]

It's very common for the micro brittles to all spawn at once. Same for the bristlweworms. the worms may very well have been attracted to the brittle spawn. They smelled food and came out to feast.

Edited October 10, 2013 by Sugar Magnolia

[YHSublime]

If you want to collect them all, I will give you a set of tongs and I will put them in my tank, my Melanurus will make short work of them. I'm actually throwing them in from my old tank into my new one as I sift through the sand.

[gmerek2]

I'm shocked that they don't spawn in private with only one mate. That group spawning would be a sight to see !! My six line is a tad aggressive it chases my damsel around every now and then. Doesn't bother the rest of my big fish. So if you want to control with that route I wouldn't recommend if you have any smaller fish. If bristleworm ever gets big just carefully put it in the sump I heard they sting when large.

[Squishie89]

If you want to collect them all, I will give you a set of tongs and I will put them in my tank, my Melanurus will make short work of them. I'm actually throwing them in from my old tank into my new one as I sift through the sand.

Thank you! I have tongs, but these guys are still quite tiny. When I got the original one I used a pipette! I don't think I could grab them with tongs. But if/when they get larger, I would be happy to feed your wrasse =)