# [Wet Thumb Forum]-worm casts?



## MyraVan (Feb 13, 2005)

On the beach you find these things, piles of sand made by marine worms. They look like this:








Well, I'm finding miniature versions of them in my little office tank, which only holds about 2 gallons of water. The diameter of the strands is about 1mm. The occupants of the tank that I know of are 4 juvenile white cloud mountain minnows, 1 nerite snail, and a selection of small pest snails. As far as I know, none of them makes piles of soil like those I see in my tank.

Does anyone else see something like this in their tanks? I wonder if I might have some kind of worm living in my substrate. If so, I'm not sure how it got there, as I've never fed live food. Perhaps the eggs hitched a ride on one of the plants?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

If they're short pieces (lovely picture!), could it be from the snails?

I've seen stuff like when the snails feed on lots of algae.


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## MyraVan (Feb 13, 2005)

Well, it's definitely a worm!

I used to have a nice substrate of 1" soil covered by 1" gravel in that little tank. Then I started to notice those "worm casts" appearing on top of the gravel. At first I did gravel vacuuming to get them off the gravel, but then I realized that these things weren't being deposited on the gravel by creatures above, but were being thrown up there by creatures from below, and that if I vacuumed them all up soon I would have no soil left in my substrate. So I left them, and now the entire floor of my tank is soil. The gravel is still there, but underneath the top layer of soil

I just saw the worm(s) for the first time today. I saw it poking its head up out of the soil (only about 2mm showing) and waving it around a bit. It is about 1/2mm in diameter, kind of a pinkish gray color, I think -- it's hard to tell as I can see so little of it. Does this sound like anything familiar to you all?

Hah! Leeches in one tank, worms in my substrate in another. I'm getting a collection of interesting, uninteded creatures!


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## Erin (Feb 18, 2005)

I have found that those are some of my favorite critters these days. Congrats, how cool!


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

In one of my tanks the resident worms have brought soil up from below, so that the tank now has soil mounds a couple of centimetres high in a few places. The rest of the gravel is now mixed with soil too. I think the dark soil looks nicer than the pale gold gravel, and it also forms a nice contrast to the light green plants. It does not cloud the water at all; even when the fish disturbs it while hunting for worms it settles in a few seconds.



> Originally posted by MyraVan:
> I just saw the worm(s) for the first time today. I saw it poking its head up out of the soil (only about 2mm showing) and waving it around a bit. It is about 1/2mm in diameter, kind of a pinkish gray color, I think -- it's hard to tell as I can see so little of it. Does this sound like anything familiar to you all?


My tanks are full of worm heads waving back and forth. They tend to congregate in large groups. Usually they all wave in unison, but sometimes one goes the wrong way by mistake and then they all panic and whoosh back into the substrate!

From Alex.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

How cool! I wonder if I'll end up w/ any neat little creatures....


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

Ricardo, many LFSs sell blackworms or tubifex worms as live food. You could buy some and release them into your tanks. Unless you have worm-mad fish that dig, like loaches, a few worms would probably escape the fish and set up house in the soil. 

From Alex.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Hmmm... thanks for the tip Alex. You think that either of those would be ok in my tank, just in terms of general health issues? I'd be concerned of a massive die-off of worms and the ensuing pollution it would cause. I do have corys who tend to dig around a bit, would that be a problem? Also, I've read of health issues w/ tubifex but that seems to be more of a concern of them growing under dirty conditions...'

-ricardo


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

We've discussed aquatic worms quite a bit in earlier folders:

Let me see if I can post this URL correctly. Otherwise, scroll down to Jan 28 2005 "Tubifex Worms in the Substrate" and "Aquatic Worms...."

Aquatic Worms


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Here's a continuation folder on July 2.

Aquatic Worms-2


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Thanks for the links Diana!

-ricardo


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

Ricardo, if you have Cory catfish they worms may not survive anyway. As far as a big die-off goes, you could always release a few at a time and see how they go (if you look into the tank at night with a torch you should be able to see how they are doing). 

From Alex.


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