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Bristle worms in my live rock good or bad???
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Adam801 View Drop Down
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Joined: March 20 2019
Location: Utah
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    Posted: March 21 2019 at 3:03am
Hello so I was wondering if bristle worms were either good or bad to have in your tank? So I just recently set up a new 20 gal tank and I started off with live sand and some live rock that I got from the store I also added a pretty nice piece of dry dead fiji live rock that had been in my old tank years ago .. anyways I noticed one late night after a few days of it running that there were a bunch of bristle worms coming out of all the cracks and crevices of my new live rock I even noticed them in my sand as well... Even today while I was feeding the fish I turned off all the pumps and filters and slowly squirted some shrimp soaked in garlic extreme and it was crazy a bunch of bristle worms were coming out of the rocks as if they could smell the food and we're starving or something lol .. anyways I was just wondering is this going to be a problem? I've heard they are good but then I've heard they can be bad as well...

Also that was one of the main reasons why I shut down my tank and got out of the hobby years ago because I had a huge bobbit work in there that lived in my sand and he'd come out at night and eat all my fish and some corals... I tried for months to catch that damn thing but never could... I've heard people call these huge bobbit worms bristle worms as well so I wasnt sure if that's just what they are too and these are just the baby ones lol
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WildBill View Drop Down
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Joined: January 31 2018
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A few bristle worms are not bad, but if you have a big infestation of them, them you have a problem. They’ll kill your CUC mostly. Never heard of them killing fish though. If you do decide to eradicate them, use rubber gloves and tweezers to remove them. Their sting is pretty bad from what I understand. If you do get stung, use vinegar on the affected area, it will help relieve the sting.
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knowen87 View Drop Down
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Bristle worms are ok and can be a good part of your cleanup crew and they are not baby bobbit worms. I would not worry about them unless they get overpopulated. You can reduce their numbers by making a trap and removing some. I feel like getting rid of them is not feasible nor worth your time. As far as the sting goes, it is not that bad. It is similar to having tiny slivers. They only hurt when they get rubbed the right direction and there are several remedies to help (vinegar or tape). I have had bristle worms in my tanks since the beginning and I have only been stung a few times and I haven't been stung for a few years now. I just try to watch where I grab my rocks. They mostly hang out underneath them and the don't always sting you even if you do touch them. 
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Hogie View Drop Down
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Bristle worms aren't bobbit worms by any means, but I absolutely HATE them!!!!! If I had my way, I would put them all in a vat of vinegar and watch them squirm. I'm so sick of getting stung by them and I'm sick of seeing my fish with bristles sticking out of them as well. For me, when I get stung (which happens every time without fail I stick my hand in the tank without a glove on) it doesn't hurt at all at the moment. I don't even know I was stung except I've learned through the years the texture of a bristle worm so that's how I know I touched one. But the next day, it's that itchy hurt feel like a spider bite and it stays like that for a month! The I've tried vinegar and it does dissolve the bristle outside the skin, but is only so so on the bristle inside the skin (I've found I have to leave my finger in the vinegar for 20 to 30 min for it to dissolve the outside completely.) The think that has worked the best for me is to use tweezers to put out the ones I can see and then use finger nail clippers to cut of the top layers of skin where the bristles penetrated. The trick is to get all the area where the bristles went in and to not cut too deep.
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