I purchased my first marine item yesterday, a nice finger leather. Out of the attached live rock came about 5 of these little guys, they are about 1.5 cm in length
-what are they?
-are they reef safe?
-if a good item, what do they eat?
-if not how to get rid of them?
i've have those for about 2 years, they are ok, i've never seen them do any harm to anything, part of the ecosystem, ditritivores, some corals eat them
the red ones are fireworms, they have a nasty sting, i wouldn't want those
ya the small bristleworms are actually benneficial. Some of the larger species can actually be aggresive predators. I found out I had one back awhile ago when some of my lps got eaten, then one of my rbta's after every night began missing more and more tentacles.
I find them all over they dont bother anything i have at all, help keep my sand clean and always eating left overs. If you want to keep control of them get an arrow crab. i had one and he munched those bristles all the time
They are harmless. They only problem with bristle worms is if you happen to pick up a rock with bare hands and grab one of these guys, they will leave there bristles in your finger. Just like having a tiny sliver just harder to work out.
They eat left over decaying food or dead/dying fish,corals etc. They typically will self regulate based on food supply so no need to buy a trap or predator specifically to handle them. Unless you start with dead rock, and never put anything in your tank you will have bristle worms.
I had them for a little, they didnt seem to do any harm. They creeped out the kids and wife more then anything. I wanted them gone. I just sucked them up during water changes. Took 3-4 water changes before I got em all though.
there are some scary ones online. Like 2-3 feet long and a centimeter thick. Looks like those DUNE monsters. Gives me the creeps just thinking about it, lol