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Bristle Worms
Last updated on November 17th, 2023
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About Bristle Worms
Bristle Worms are orange, brown, and/or gray worms with sharp white spikes on either side. They can be found as small as an inch or up to two feet long.
Whatever you do, DO NOT grab bristle worms by hand. The spines and teeth can be big enough to puncture skin. Though generally accepted as a pest, bristle worms will help keep the substrate clean. If they're not bothering corals or invertebrates, you may consider letting them live in the reef tank or in the refugium.
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How to Prevent Bristle Worms
You can do some prevention of bristle worms by dipping coral in Coral RX Coral Dip and/or Beyer (BioAdvanced) Insect Killer before adding them to your reef tank. You can reduce chances of bristle worms entering your reef on rocks by inspecting the rocks being added to your reef tank. You may want to treat live rock outside of the tank and not add wet live rock to any aquarium. This will help prevent bristle worms as well as a variety of other pests from entering your reef tank.
How to Get Rid of Bristle Worms
To get rid of bristle worms, you can use a tweezers to pull them out of the tank. Make sure you wear gloves as these worms' bristles can get stuck in your skin and be very itchy. You can also utilize a bristle worm trap, designed to capture these worms without needing to watch for them. An alternative is to siphon out the bristle worms.
What Eats Bristle Worms
Six Line Wrasse and Melanurus Wrasse will both eat bristle worms, as well as a variety of other pests. These are beautiful fish and contribute a lot to the health of the reef tank.
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