Bristle worm eating polyps!!!

[BRIAN2156]

I have noticed lately that some zoos were missing off a rock. After watching and watching I caught a huge bristle worm eating my clove polyps. This one worm is about 1/2 inches wide and at least a foot long. He comes out on the bottom only and it is tough to grab him. Last night I grabbed it with the twezers and it just pulled out. It is huge!!!! Please help me with any ideas to capture it. I do not want to dismantle the reef. Thanks, Brian

[Sk8r]

put something yummy in a clean soda bottle and leave it on the bottom of the tank when your lights go off. Come back a little later with a redlight flashlight and check it out. if he's in there, net the neck of the bottle and lift the sucker out. This is going to be worse than catching an eel---baited trap is one way to do it. Another would be to remove the rock you know he's in and put it in a bucket until, with whatever encouragement, he leaves it. There are two species of predatory bristleworm, as I understand it. Not a good situation.

[DJ88©]

This thread has been moved to the current forum.

[BRIAN2156]

sk8r, Thanks for the reply. I like the idea but there is not much room for a soda bottle. The pictures are old and I now have several clams... on the sand bed and it is just a 46 bow. Whats the next best? I can not remove the rock without destroying the reef. Brian

[marcel leroux]

I had worm not only eat my zoes but also my rics. Could not catch him in any trap. Finally just took the rock out that it was in. There is a pic of it in my gallery. Mine was not that wide though, about 6inches long.

[BRIAN2156]

Nice tank Marcel. It is a complete different breed. Mine is metalic gray/blue with white thick bristles. I hope it stays away froom the rics. I just added nice orange ones!! Brian

[marcel leroux]

Good luck catching him, can be frustrating sometimes.

[Dawn II]

I have 2 worm traps that I put in for a couple of nights every month or so. I will trap 2 or 3 92-6 in. long) before they get real big

[BRIAN2156]

Hi Dawn,

What traps? The small ones will not work with this guy!! I tried nylon and that was a joke. Brian

[Dawn II]

Can you think of anything you can use as a trap that will fit? Make something up of your own?

[BRIAN2156]

What is a good bait to use?

[NCreefwannabe]

how about a clove polyp?? lol he seems to like those. J/K, you could put some frozen in there, but may end up catching other thigns too lol.

[Sk8r]

maybe you could get an oldfashioned glass vinegar bottle, the decorative sort they sell at Pier One: they can be exceedingly odd-shaped and might fit where a soda bottle wouldn't. My extreme sympathies for this situation: we had these types when I lived in Oklahoma---or rather, we had the little ones. Looks like you've got Godzilla.

[Dawn II]

Bait- most any aquarium food that will be big enough not to float out - small piece of krill, or even cooked shrimp. regards, Dawn.

[White Tiger]

Are we talking about a bristleworm?
From what I am hearing, it sounds like we are actually talking about a fireworm.--------Fireworms usually eat polyps, not bristleworms

[XeniaMania]

As much as you'd hate to teardown your reef, this is a tough decision you need to make. You can try baiting, but it's obvious this worm can eat anything in your tank, so your chances of it going into a bottle is slim. Does it take the worm eating every coral in your tank before it decides to go for the bottle? You need to weigh things out right now, and decide as a reefkeeper, what is your best move. If it was me, I'd take the chance of tearing down the reef to remove a predator. I know it's a pain in the @$$, but what do you value more, your own time and effort or your corals? Also the worms that Dawn catchs are 'scanvengers' while this one is a predator, big difference. Predators like their food live, while scanvengers like dead stuff.

[XeniaMania]

Lets also hope it is no bigger than a foot. If it is, and it's 1/2 way into a bottle, then try grabbing it and it wiggles and lands 1/2 of it's body full of bristles on your hand and arm. Yikes *shivers*

[rustybucket145]

If you ever do get a set of tweezers/tongs around it DO NOT yank it. It will just break in half. Once you squeeze it just leave the tweezers in place and the worm will come entirely out of it's hole and wrap around the tweezers like a Ball Python would and then you can just remove it.

I had to wage war on bristles last summer. I made a homemade trap out of 1/2" PVC with 1/4" holes drilled in endcaps on each end. You can make it any length/ shape you need to fit. I then wrapped dried krill in some bridal veil and inserted the 'bait ball' under one of the endcaps (the opposite end that I expected the worm to enter) and just sunk them in the tank. Almost instantly the worms would exit their holes and haul butt to the trap. On one particular saturday I caught almost 50 bristle worms. You say your worm is pretty thick. He might even appear larger than the hole you drill. But remember these guys make their living squeezing through live rock. So they can enter holes much smaller than their body. I caught a few that were close to 8" in these traps.

Good Luck.