How to Control Bristleworms in a Marine Aquarium

Bristleworms are orange, brown or gray worms with a slightly fuzzy appearance. These worms start small but can grow up to 20 inches. They can often be found infesting marine aquariums. Because bristleworms are mainly scavengers, most of them are harmless, and can even be left in the aquarium. Some bristleworms, however, may eat the invertebrates, clams or even fish in your aquarium. Bristleworms scavenge at night and hide during the day. Combined with their extremely sharp teeth and bristles, this makes controlling and removing them a tricky job.

Things You'll Need

  • Bristleworm-eating fish or invertebrates
  • PVC pipe or plastic canister with lid
  • Window screen or other netted material
  • Two rubber bands
  • Scissors
  • Bait, such as shrimp
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Instructions

  1. Small Infestation Reduction

    • 1

      Add bristleworm-eating fish or invertebrates to your aquarium. Some of the fish that prey on bristleworms are wrasses, some types of butterfly fish and dottybacks. Some types of shrimp, such as coral shrimp, and crabs also hunt and eat bristleworms. This technique works well to control infestations of small-sized bristleworms.

    • 2

      Keep your aquarium clean. Perform partial water changes in the tank frequently. Remove as much organic waste as you can. Since bristleworms scavenge on organic waste, removing this waste from the tank during a water change will reduce their food supply. A smaller food supply means fewer worms in the aquarium.

    • 3

      Remove any bristleworms you can see. You may have better luck performing this task at night, since bristleworms are nocturnal and come out in the dark to feed.

    Control Larger Bristlworms and Infestations with Traps

    • 4

      Make a bristleworm trap. Although you can buy traps, homemade traps can be made large enough to capture large worms, and generally work as well if not better. Cut an 8-inch length of PVC pipe. Around each end of the pipe, wrap a piece of window screening or a net material that has very small openings. Hold this material in place by twisting a rubber band around the material and the ends of the pipe. In the netting on one end, cut a slender hole.

    • 5

      Bait the trap with a piece of shrimp or other bait material. Place the shrimp as far as you can toward the end of the pipe that doesn't have the hole cut in the netting.

    • 6

      Drop the trap into the aquarium, and leave it for at least one night

    • 7

      Check your trap in the morning, and dispose of any bristleworms inside.

    • 8

      Bait your trap a second time and replace it in the aquarium. Continue using the trap in this manner until your don't see any more bristleworms.