Bristle Worm, etc...

[YoungMrHoward]

Today I bought a dwarf blue legged hermit crab for my Hawaiian red shrimp gallon aquarium. I am currently acclimating the crab to brackish water since it was in full salt water when I bought it. It seems to be doing fine. The pet store threw in two "empty" shells for future growth. I personally believe these shells are too large and too few. At any rate, I have discovered what I assume is a small bristle worm living in one of the shells. My aquarium presently has one nerite snail and two shrimp. I plan on adding at least 8 more shrimp and macro algae. I had the water tested today. It is "perfect".

So here come my questions: 1. Can a bristle worm live in brackish water? 2. Is a bristle worm a threat to my other animals in any way? 3. Where can I get small enough shells for my hermit crab? I don't want him to go after my nerite.

[JoanToBa]

Well, I don't know about where you could get the shells, but I'm sure in Amazon there are real shells for decoration. And about the bristle worm, you could just take the shell containing the worm or just all the shell and you give them a good soak (for a day) of tap water, then clean all the shells and the worm should come out dead. If that doesn't seem to work, don't worry, when I bought my live rock a bristle worm came with it. Four days later, it was dead.

So, bristle worms don't survive in brackish water.

I don't know what size you want the snail shells, but here you have some:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... sea+shells

[DrKirk]

Bristle worms, also known as polychaetes, are common in both marine and brackish water habitats. In some cases they are capable of living in both conditions. There should be no problems in an opae ula container. In marine aquaria, however, some polychaete species, known as fire worms, can be introduced with ‘live rocks,’ and feed on corals.

[YoungMrHoward]

Thanks for all the info. The fire worm died while I was acclimating it. Who knows if it was old, or unhealthy when I accidentally got it. I would have added it to my aquarium if I knew it would not be a threat or threatened. Alas, it died and my wonderings were empty.