Bristle worms eating BTAs?

[WatercolorsGuy]

My girlfriend has a 57g cube-ish tank, full of live rock, with zoas, sps, lps, leather all doing well and growing. She is running 4x65w PC (10k and actinics) and 2 x H.O. T5's Actinics. Tank is 30"x18"x24+". It has been set up for two years. Params are all good.

She has tried to keep 2 GBTA and a RBTA, with no success. They seem to settle in nicely and are away from anything that may sting them but they quickly disappear. She feeds them silversides. Not really a case of dying and melting away, just disappear. Not in a sump or pump, just gone. The other day after doing a water change and cleaning it for her, in the back of the tank, under all the rock I saw a huge bristleworm. Probably about 3/8" thick with 3-4" sticking out of the rock. Not wanting to tear the tank apart to get it, I left it in there. It was right below where the RBTA was last.

Question...is this the culprit eliminating the BTAs? Would a bristle worm just feed on a particular species? Anyone have a big trap we could borrow?

 

[SteveT]

Bristle worms are scavengers and will very rarely eat something that is alive an healthy, only things that are dead or dying.

 

[ReefCheif]

This is strange if you ask me. They are definatly not dying in there, the toxins would reak havok on the tank and all its inhabitants. Might sound stupid but have you looked for them in the rock stack? I have a freind up north who took one of my RBTAs home and within 2 weeks he said it had disappeared. He had surgery on his elbow so I was over helping him with a water change one day about 2 months later, we moved some rock and BAM, there was the little BTA hiding in a crevis on the back of the rock stack, the current was good back there so he never tried to move and was getting just enough light to stay in place. You aboslutyl could not see him from any angle of the tank unless you moved the rock.

 

[WatercolorsGuy]

I took out almost half the rock out a week ago and searched every piece to see if it was hiding somewhere. The tank definitely doesn't act like it had a nem die in it. The last one was pretty good sized...about 5" when really happy too. Maybe we need to keep waiting it out...but this is the third one.

 

[JimmyOrangeSeed]

Yea. You would know if it was dead. Your tank gets this awful dead rotting flesh smell.

Whenever I lose an anemone or a mushroom I just turn off all the lights and get out the blue LED light and shine it around the tank. Has always worked for me.

 

[hurrafreak]

I don't think you'd necessarily "know" that the anemones have died based off of any smells and such. I think it all depends on how big they were initially. I've had anemones die in tanks with no smell whatsoever. I doubt that the bristle worm is killing them though. They might be finishing them off after they've been dying, but I've not seen a bristle ever eat anything that was alive and healthy.

 

[WatercolorsGuy]

Here is a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XObbYxyaosU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[09bumblebee]

Next time you see it doing that grab some tweezers and get him out. I cant imagine he would eat any of the coral. I had a huge one in my tank that I couldnt get out and one night i had the wife shine a flashlight and he was out. I got him with a pair of tweezers and was about a foot long.

 

[sweat044]

Be careful. I stuck my hand in the tank to move something yesterday and I got stuck by one. Lets just say. The dam Bristleworm is now DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[WatercolorsGuy]

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