Bristle Worms

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

I had some a while ago that were killed by the copper in the QT but I was wondering how my fish could touch them {moving them out of their burrow} without it hurting but supposedly it will hurt humans badly. Does their slime coat protect them from it?

 

[grumpymole]

as far as i understand marine fish have a layer of mucus on thier scales wichn makes them imune to the stinging cells of such animals as anemones or bristle worms and other things too.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

I guess thats what it is for bristle worms but not for anemones, any fish but clownfish can be stung by them.

 

[grumpymole]

I guess thats what it is for bristle worms but not for anemones, any fish but clownfish can be stung by them.

anemones have different stinging cells to bristle worms wich means that different mucus layers are required to stop them from operating and not every fish has this protective layer against anemones.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Yeah i used to have a condy anemone and my goby got stung by it i felt so bad for him!

 

[grumpymole]

Yeah i used to have a condy anemone and my goby got stung by it i felt so bad for him!

yea it must hurt sooooooo much

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

But the wierd thing is with those, its opposite. Touching those anemones just feels sticky and doesnt sting humans. I guess that all has to do with the size of creature or something.

 

[grumpymole]

dunno

 

[Navarre]

Bristleworms dont sting. They release their fine hairs and these will dig into the skin. Its a little bit like getting fibreglass under the skin and iches like hell! Fish are not immune to these worms and most will give them a wide berth. I have seen a few fish take a bite at one of these worms and regretted it... One had lots of tiny bristles in its lips for days and it put the fish of its food. The other was a lionfish that snapped up a large worm , the worm dended itsslef by wrapping around the fishes face and thus its bristles dug into the eyes thus rendering the lionfish blind A Few wrasses will take em out but on the whole most fish know well enough to leave em well alone.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Well the wierd thing is, Im positive that they were bristle worms because I looked at tons of pictures and my goby and clownfish who lives under the rock with the goby{because he likes him so much] were moving them out of their hole and didnt look like they were being hurt, and they did it a number of times so I dont think it did anything to them.