Funny about the bristles. (I will say this and get an infected finger, just watch) I tend to be a very hand-in aquarium keeper (it has been a year and my knuckle is almost normal after my lion fish didn't like me picking up a knocked over coral) and use my fingers to stir up the sand when other methods fail. I am particularly bad about this with my 15 gallon merc tank. I have both the very small bristles as well as some rather large ones. Also, I search my old filters for pods before discarding or washing and invariably I will mistake a small bristle (or part of one) for a Cyclop-eze eating pod and try to pick it off the filter. The odd thing is, I have never - I know I should not say this ... - had a problem with the bristles in my fingers.