pros and cons of a sand bed

[wfrost]

I love the look of sand on the bottom of my aqaurium and the benefit of the sand bed to the tank was attractive, however over a couple of years I developed some very large bristle worms. Eventually my fish started to disappear one at a time. They were not leaving the tank, no skeletons on the floor. I bought an Arrow crab to cull the bristle worm population. There were hundreds of small ones and a few very large ones. The crab lasted three days. Even though he did make a dent in the worm population on day three or four all I found were shell parts. I have seen no other predators in the tank and have been told by several folks with much more experience than I have that the large bristle worms will eat the fish at night when they settle on the bottom to sleep. I have a 55 gal with about a 2-3 inch sandbed, and had about 15-20 lbs of live rock. All my fish were small, Green Chromis, some false Perculas, a blue Damsel, and some Black Mollies. I also had a 20gal setup with a Tomato clown that was given to me. It had regular old blue aquarium rocks. It had lots of algae and slime problems but no bristle worms. So I am getting ready to start a new set up and I have been away from the hobby for allmost two years I was wondering is it woth it to with a sand bed.

[romunov]

"Bristle worms" (such a loose term) have been "attacking" fish for quite some time... or so would appear. In fact, most of them are harmless - no - benificial, as they eat dead meat, detritus, mucus.

Additionally, most people are not that good at identifying the beasts, which only contributes to the confusion.

Polychaete Annelid Identification (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-03/rs/index.htm)
Polychaete worms (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-04/rs/index.htm)

[WaterKeeper]

Some nylon panty hose with waded up with a bit of shrimp inside makes a good worm trap. Leave it over night then pull it and pick out the worms first thing in the morning. I'd keep the smaller worms collected as there are probably reefkeepers in your area that would be glad to get these mostly beneficial worms.

[zedx6]

When I first saw the 4-5" one in my nano I was very concerned but after doing some research there are very few that are bad for a reef tank and seem to be rare. I have a pair of clowns that stay at the bottom in a corner at night and have not had any problems, is it possible your fish were sick as they are scavengers?Well good luck, if you choose to get rid of them I have read about the use of pantyhose as mentioned above works well.