Bristle worm hunter?

Hi guys,
I have a bristle worm problem in my reef tank: there are at least two
larke worms that are hunting my hermit crabs. Ove time my crabs have
been disapearing and empty shells apearing around the tank and I saw a
3" long worm capture one of them twice already.
The problem is taht I'm not fast enough to catch it with tweezers and
worm trap only traps smaller ones, which I don't have problem with.

The large worm I was didn't look like fire worm. It's purple-pinkish in
color with bristles of the same color. About half of the body is bluish
with same color of bristles.

Is there anything that would hunt them and be reef and fish safe?

Thank you in advance.
Yuriy

"Croosh" wrote in message oups.com...
I have a bristle worm problem in my reef tank: there are at least two
larke worms that are hunting my hermit crabs. Ove time my crabs have
been disapearing and empty shells apearing around the tank and I saw
a 3" long worm capture one of them twice already.

Have you actually witnessed any worm capturing live hermit crab ?
Or just saw this worm in the hermit's shell and assumed it killed your hermit ?

From what I have read about them, they are rather scavengers
and not active hunters... They feed on decaying carcases only...
Crabs are usually strong enough to eat worms on its own if allowed.

Leave the worms alone !!!
They are beneficial. Only get rid of them if there are more worms than
sand.
They do get big and ugly but they clean up the mess not make it.
They freak me out !

Arrow crabs and 6 line wrasse snack on them.
However they will not be your solution to a population explosion.


"Pszemol" wrote in message
...
"Croosh" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a bristle worm problem in my reef tank: there are at least two
larke worms that are hunting my hermit crabs. Ove time my crabs have
been disapearing and empty shells apearing around the tank and I saw
a 3" long worm capture one of them twice already.

Have you actually witnessed any worm capturing live hermit crab ?
Or just saw this worm in the hermit's shell and assumed it killed your
hermit ?

From what I have read about them, they are rather scavengers
and not active hunters... They feed on decaying carcases only...
Crabs are usually strong enough to eat worms on its own if allowed.

Wrasse works good -


"TheRock" wrote in message
news:rlSIf.10521$C02.10414@trndny02...
Leave the worms alone !!!
They are beneficial. Only get rid of them if there are more worms than
sand.
They do get big and ugly but they clean up the mess not make it.
They freak me out !

Arrow crabs and 6 line wrasse snack on them.
However they will not be your solution to a population explosion.


"Pszemol" wrote in message
...
"Croosh" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a bristle worm problem in my reef tank: there are at least two
larke worms that are hunting my hermit crabs. Ove time my crabs have
been disapearing and empty shells apearing around the tank and I saw
a 3" long worm capture one of them twice already.

Have you actually witnessed any worm capturing live hermit crab ?
Or just saw this worm in the hermit's shell and assumed it killed your
hermit ?

From what I have read about them, they are rather scavengers
and not active hunters... They feed on decaying carcases only...
Crabs are usually strong enough to eat worms on its own if allowed.

Pszemol,
Yes, I have actually witnessed one capturing a crab. The worm was about
2.5-3" long and 1/4" or so in diameter (the visible part at least).
Yesterday it was "siffing" the san and came acrost a crab that fell on
it's back. Fro what I saw it grabbed the crab and retracted to its
hole.
On previous ocasion I just was one in the shell, not the actuala
attach, so I assumed taht crab had just died from natural causes.

Thank you
Yuriy

TheRock,
I'm not crazzy about eradicating bristle worm and their apperance
doesn't bother me, but I want to get the "boa" out of my aquarium.
I can't say that I have an explosion of population, but I can can see
some worms going about their business.
I'm not feeding my tank at all (at least not in last 5-6 months), so
cutting back on feeding will not fix it either.

Thanks
Yuriy

You dont feed your tank?

How do your fish survive?

~m

"Croosh" wrote in message
ups.com...
TheRock,
I'm not crazzy about eradicating bristle worm and their apperance
doesn't bother me, but I want to get the "boa" out of my aquarium.
I can't say that I have an explosion of population, but I can can see
some worms going about their business.
I'm not feeding my tank at all (at least not in last 5-6 months), so
cutting back on feeding will not fix it either.

Thanks
Yuriy

I agree...According to Shimek, there is something in the order of a
few thousand different types of worms, and out of this number there is
only a small handfull that would be considered problems, and
fortunately the majority of that handfull of worms are rarely
encountered in a home aquarium. They are scavengers at most, and are
very beneficial to a tank. They do more than what the average eye
sees, and usually when you wind up with a nice clean tank, they never
get the credit, as the snails and hermits usually do.....I have one
bristle worm about the size of a ball point pen......its huge. About
the only time I ever see any of my worms is at feeding time or after
lights out....I agree they do multiply if the conditions are right so
i do thin my stock of worms out periodically, but they do not get
flushed they get put in other tanks.
--
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oooO
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The original frugal ponder ! Koi-ahoi mates....

"Croosh" wrote in message oups.com...
Pszemol,
Yes, I have actually witnessed one capturing a crab. The worm was about
2.5-3" long and 1/4" or so in diameter (the visible part at least).
Yesterday it was "siffing" the san and came acrost a crab that fell on
it's back. Fro what I saw it grabbed the crab and retracted to its
hole.

Worm draged hermit crab WITH CRAB'S SHELL ?

On 15 Feb 2006 19:59:36 -0800, "Croosh" wrote:

Pszemol,
Yes, I have actually witnessed one capturing a crab. The worm was about
2.5-3" long and 1/4" or so in diameter (the visible part at least).
Yesterday it was "siffing" the san and came acrost a crab that fell on
it's back. Fro what I saw it grabbed the crab and retracted to its
hole.
On previous ocasion I just was one in the shell, not the actuala
attach, so I assumed taht crab had just died from natural causes.

Thank you
Yuriy

Hello Yuriy,

Bristleworms will enter empty shells to see if there is anything in
there to eat. I agree with the other posters, that they are "good
news" in cleaning-up the aquarium.

Regards, Fishnut.