what fishes will eat bristleworm (marine tank)?

Answer 1

Chris, most of the fish that will eat these are things that get big or are otherwise difficult to keep in aquaria (bird wrasses, copperband butterflies).

Some smaller predators you might try are the red hog wrasse (Cheilinus oxycephalus, 8 inches), yellow moon wrasse (Thalassoma lutescens, 9.5 inches), Springer's, neon, and sunrise dottybacks (Pseudochromis springeri, P. aldabraensis, and P. flavivertex, all around 3 inches). Hawkfish will sometimes eat these as well, but not always. This is more up to the individual fish's tastes.

You could also try a coral banded shrimp.

You'll have to judge by the size of your tank and what you keep already if any of these will work for you, or if it would just be better to try and trap them out (especially larger ones, since these tend to be avoided by the fish). You can buy a trap made to catch bristleworms, or just do a variation on this homemade fish trap: http://www.floridadriftwood.com/fish_trap.htm and bait it with some shrimp pellets which I found out bristleworms love to eat. You'll have to place something near the opening so the worms can get into the bottle, and maybe modify the size of the opening so that your fish or other inverts don't get in.

Most bristleworms aren't a problem (unless they have an abundant food supply) and will help keep your substrate aerated, so these aren't necessarily bad to have. If anything, they can also be a part of the cleanup crew (just one you don't want to handle!).

Answer 2

We have always used a trap for those rascals.