Possible bristle worm

Today, for the first time, I saw on my live rock what I think is a bristle worm. It is very very small. In thickness it is about the size of pencil lead and in length it is about 1-1 and a half cm long. It is pink with what looks like little bristles on the sides. I want to post a picture of it, but I think it can feel vibrations, because every time I get close to the tank it goes back into the rock. I could only get close once. If anyone can tell what this is based on this description, I would like to know if it is bad to have in my tank. Thanks in advance!

 

Sounds like a bristleworm. At such a small size, it is nothing to panic about, but you don't want it to stay either. You can get traps to catch them, either from your LFS or online.

 

I have them in my tanks too and (knocking on wood) nothing bad has ever happened to the fish or other inverts. I have one about 6 inches long that comes out when the lights are off. I can see it really good via the blue moon lights crawling along the base of the rock.

 

The debate is a good one in terms of bristleworms. I'm sorta in the same boat as Mike, although, the one that I've seen wasn't 6 inches long. Keep an eye on it, if you're worried about it, find a trap like sgould said

 

I hate bristleworms personally because my skin is so sensitive to it. When I put my hands in the water it burns when I pull it out if bristleworms are in the water. At least I am pretty sure that is what causes it as I don't have that problem in certain tanks that I am sure don't have bristle worms. But on to my point! If you feed seaweed- I often rubber band it to a rock to feed tangs and such but it also works as a bristle worm catcher! They gather under there and when I pull it out I can use twissers to quickly grab the unfortunate souls and throw them in some freshwater (which appears to kill them pretty instantly). There are also these cool crabs called Aero Crabs that look like spiders that like to eat them. I always just feed our aero crab the bristleworms I find so I don't know how well they would do wiping them out of a tank on their on accord. Good luck, hope your not highly sensitive like me

 

does anyone know what this is? is this a bristleworm I saw it the other day it comes out at night I can't take a good pic of it because it goes back in the rock when the lights are on. what can this do to the fish and others?