# meet my little friend



## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)

This is Harry, one of the shop mascots.








Normally I don't give Harry much thought but today I reached and moved a coral with out thinking first and Harry made one 3 of my finger and a thumb hairy. Took me 15 minutes to pick all the darn hairs out.

Harry is not the largest bristle worm I have had in the shop... not even close actually, but he is the healthiest and the prettiest.


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## caker_chris (Apr 22, 2010)

they freak me out when I move a rock or coral to find them underneath. Thankfully I have yet to be stung. Once I found a huge one in my tank, it was at least a foot long and probably as thick as my thumb.


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

totally awesome and cool, but as equally disgusting...


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## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)

I like them  They are excellent reef safe scavengers and they are quick to get to the job when something dies in the tank. One of the few scavengers that will clean up a large turbo/moon snail before it breaks downs into that incredibly rank smelling toxic soup they are famous for becoming.

Big ones like Harry are not that common but the little red ones do multiply pretty fast and every now and then I have harvest them out of my systems just for aesthetic reason. When you look in the tank during the day and they are hanging off the glass it is time to harvest them. 

All I do is put some shrimp in a grazy glue container that has some small holes drilled in it and leave it there over night. In the morning it is full of little worms.


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

wildexpressions said:


> All I do is put some shrimp in a grazy glue container that has some small holes drilled in it and leave it there over night. In the morning it is full of little worms.


Good one. thanks

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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

WOW!!! That's a meaty sucker.. O_O You are brave.. lol


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## ecoleshill (Jan 22, 2009)

wildexpressions said:


> All I do is put some shrimp in a grazy glue container that has some small holes drilled in it and leave it there over night. In the morning it is full of little worms.


I have several in my tank as well and pick them out when I see them. Never tried the grazy glue container though. I'll have to give that a shot.


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## carmenh (Dec 20, 2009)

I'm with you! Great scavengers! I haven't ever gotten to the point where they were on the glass during the day, though 



wildexpressions said:


> I like them  They are excellent reef safe scavengers and they are quick to get to the job when something dies in the tank. One of the few scavengers that will clean up a large turbo/moon snail before it breaks downs into that incredibly rank smelling toxic soup they are famous for becoming.
> 
> Big ones like Harry are not that common but the little red ones do multiply pretty fast and every now and then I have harvest them out of my systems just for aesthetic reason. When you look in the tank during the day and they are hanging off the glass it is time to harvest them.
> 
> All I do is put some shrimp in a grazy glue container that has some small holes drilled in it and leave it there over night. In the morning it is full of little worms.


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## fury165 (Aug 21, 2010)

Ugh, stuff of my reefing nightmares and I just got water into the tank!


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

I picked up something at work last week and found to my delight a bristle worm almost as long as my arm, and with it lots of neato hairs from my pinky down to my wrist. My hand swelled up for almost an hour, and there were so many that I just scrubbed my hand until it was numb 

But...yea, good scavengers. Wish I had a picture of that one, but his days were over after that incident


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## wildexpressions (May 3, 2010)

Chris S said:


> I picked up something at work last week and found to my delight a bristle worm almost as long as my arm, and with it lots of neato hairs from my pinky down to my wrist. My hand swelled up for almost an hour, and there were so many that I just scrubbed my hand until it was numb
> 
> But...yea, good scavengers. Wish I had a picture of that one, but his days were over after that incident


The longest one I've had was over 3 ft but it was so thin that it broke into pieces just trying to manipulate it for pictures.

So far I do not seem to be sensitive to their hairs and have had no reaction at all to them. That may very well change with time though if I get nailed a few more times. Hope not but it seems pretty common to become sensitized to quite a few of the toxins in aquariums though repeated exposure.


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