Continued from page 1Checking for Bristle Worms
As indicated above this can only be done at night. You will rarely see a bristle worm during the day. They hide in rock and in crevices. They hide underneath rock, in the sand, behind rock and in any place where light is low in intensity.
The only way to determine their presence is to use a "red" light. You can make a red light out of a flashlight by covering it with a piece of red acetate or very thin plastic material. This can be obtained for Arts and Crafts shops for a minimal amount of money. Tape it to your flashlight. Some package wrapping material is red too and can be used as well.
Once you have done all this, you are now ready to look at the tank in detail. Inspect all areas of the aquarium. Indeed, some of the live forms you may discover (in addition to Bristle Worms, are real small). You need to do so in total darkness and several hours after the lights have gone off. Their should be no light in the room what so ever. It is a good idea to close your curtains or blinds too.
Inspecting the aquarium will show you that there are many more life in your aquarium than you actually imaged. Some of that life may be bristle worms or other undesirable animals. Some may be desirable and some may not be. I can not decide on that without knowing what exactly it is that you have. Descriptions over the phone usually do not help a lot in identifying such animals. It is too hard to describe exactly what you have. A photo sent to me though will allow me to give you an identification. A Polaroid shot is usually plenty, a regular photo will do too of course. You are welcome to avail yourself of this service we offer at no cost.
This, now, leads us to the actual removal process and the methods that you can employ to do so. There are several, as I indicated earlier. I will cover the ones that hobbyists seem to have the most success with. They are all geared to setting up some kind of a trap, but the traps themselves differ and what is placed inside them may be different as well. I really prefer to make my own, as you will read later. This is not difficult at all and makes the whole process really inexpensive.
Try one of the methods and if you are not successful at removing the undesirable animals try one of the others. What is really important in this whole process is patience. Do not give up too soon deciding that you are not able to remove the worms and other unwanted animals. You will eventually succeed but you must pursue the endeavor. If you give up too soon you have lost all you have accomplished as the worms will start reproducing. They do so rapidly too (just as they grow rapidly).
Trapping the Worms and other Undesirables
Let us first discuss and list what kind of "traps" for worms and other animals you can set up and use. That will get us started, and you can decide which one you want to choose to start your first attempt at catching what you want to get out of your aquarium.
If the trap you select at first does not work, go to another type and continue you endeavor to remove the worms and whatever other undesirable animals you may have seen in the tank during your night inspection.
Below are various kinds of traps, from rudimentary to sophisticated ones. Choose the one that you think suits your purpose best (look at the cost too). Some you can make yourself, others are sold in stores and are prefabricated by manufacturers. Pet Stores and Mail Order places will have them available. You can check their ads in the magazines (e.g. FAMA, TFH, MFM, AF, and also in Aquarium Society Newsletters).
All the traps described work on the principle that they are placed in the aquarium, in the area where you suspect there may be a worm (or several of them), and leave the trap there during the night (or for several nights in a row), after you have placed some food stuff in the trap to attract the bristle worm(s).
- Plastic or acrylic traps with a small opening through which the bristle worm (in this case) can get in but not out. These are commonly found in pet stores or through other outlets.
- Plastic or acrylic trap with large door. As soon as anything enters the trap, the sliding opening (door) to it closes (drops down) and whatever got in is trapped as it can no longer get out.
- Small plastic or acrylic containers sold as bristle worm traps in many pet stores and other pet supply outlets. I have found and other hobbyists have told me that they do not really work all that well if at all. I am not saying that they are useless but, it is my opinion that you can do better as we shall see.
- Home made traps (we will go into these a little later). These are the ones I prefer. These also seem to be the ones that hobbyists have the most success with.
- Fancy traps that can catch not only worms but a number of other animals as well (often they catch what you don't want to catch).
- Traps that you hang inside the aquarium.
The key then is to find the right kind of trap, the one that seems to do the best job at trapping the bristle worms and preventing them from getting out of the trap. Although the "fancier" models may work and may remove some of the undesirable animals, including bristle worms, I find that hobbyists seem to get the best results with home made models that cost very little and appear to be more effective than the more expensive ones. Why they are more effective has to do with their design and with the fact that they often can be adjusted by the hobbyists according to what he or she wants to trap (as we shall see in the next section).
The way I suggest you trap worms and other animals you do not want, is to use such a home made model. I personally have nothing against the commercial ones but find the home made ones to work better. I will describe the process on how to build such a model below.
You can, of course, use some of the models described above and place food in them to attract the worms. That method may or may not work as I indicated. If the method you are now using that employs such a device does not work, meaning that it does not trap anything, try the home made models. In my experience and that of many others, those are the ones hobbyists are having the most success rate with.
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