Bristle worm ?

[Martin]

Seems I have a bristle worm in my tank, orange at either end and black in
the middle section saw it crawling across a piece of live rock and into a
hole, not seen him since.

Now some places I read these are bad things and you should try and get rid
of them, others say they are good and you should keep them.......

Help !!!

[Joe V.]

Martin,

I'm not an expert, but when I posed the question earlier the answer is that
it depends on what type of bristleworm you have ... some are good and some
are bad.

It sounds like you have the same worm that I had, and it's a bad one. I
caught it eating my mushroom corals, and I believe it also chomped up some
of my others. I flushed it as soon as I caught it, and found several more
in the months afterwards.

"Martin" > wrote in message
...
> Seems I have a bristle worm in my tank, orange at either end and black in
> the middle section saw it crawling across a piece of live rock and into a
> hole, not seen him since.
>
> Now some places I read these are bad things and you should try and get rid
> of them, others say they are good and you should keep them.......
>
> Help !!!

[Billy]

"Martin" > wrote in message
...
> Seems I have a bristle worm in my tank, orange at either end and
> black in
> the middle section saw it crawling across a piece of live rock and
> into a
> hole, not seen him since.
>
> Now some places I read these are bad things and you should try and
> get rid
> of them, others say they are good and you should keep them.......
>
> Help !!!

From what I have learned, unless they get fairly large, they don't
pose a problem, and are excellent detrivores, keeping the substrate
clean. The larger they get, the more likely they are to start eyeing
your corals. I've never had a problem with them......yet, perhaps?
<g>

billy

[RRC]

Bristleworms are harmless and stir the sand as long as the population
is kept down. I have several of these worms, at least one of them is 7"
long. None of my softies or zoos have been harmed by them. They mostly
just come out at night and pick up detritus.