# Worms in my nano!



## neonfish3 (Feb 12, 2004)

I Found these small thin glassy white worms crawling on the inside of my small nano (pico)tank. The tank is a 4"x4"x4" lit by an Azoo mini palm 3w light, no co2, no substrate, no filter, no heater, no fish. I did have 1 of each kind of snail I have( MTS, Ramshorn, pond snail). I have java and x-mas moss, 1 each of small blyxa, java fern, riccia, glosso and a rock. All the plants and snails and the rock came from my other tanks. I have well water, and I've been topping off for evaporation every day with 1/2 tank WC every 3-4 days.(it's easy)
The worms would crawl along the glass at a pretty good rate. I never saw them swim. There were 1/2-5/8 in. worms and very many 1/8- 1/4 in.
Anyone know what these worms are? 
Should I be worried--my main concern, after I thought about it, was that these came out of my well!!! pray: they're not, right.) uke:

Also what else did I capture in this shot--the smaller white things that have the shape of paramecium. I didn't see them when I took the shot, but my camera definitely see's better than I do!









2 days ago I cleaned the tank after I took this picture, and not seen the worms again. I also took out the snails and added 1 amano shrimp.
Here's the tank tonight:








:spider: :spider: :spider: :spider: :spider: :spider: :spider: :spider:


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

The worm is a freshwater oligochaete, a small relative to earthworms and is common and harmless. It probably came in on one of the plants (not in your well water!) The protozoa are really Paramecium. 

What kind of lens do you have on your camera to get that picture?


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## neonfish3 (Feb 12, 2004)

HeyPK said:


> The protozoa are really Paramecium.
> 
> What kind of lens do you have on your camera to get that picture?


Thanks HeyPK. 
But after doing some research on freshwater oligochaete, I still am grossed out. 
http://www.eeob.iastate.edu/faculty/DrewesC/htdocs/invert-thumbs.htm
Theres some great pics and info here^
and here: http://www.micrographia.com/aadirpgs/specall/specgen/spegen01.htm
The WORLD we live in IS amazing!!!

My camera is a Nikon coolpix 5400, no special lenses, shot in macro, f 3.5, 1/60 sec., ISO 50. no flash. Pic was edited slightly in Photoshop Elements 3 to bring out more detail.
The camera will focus at 1 cm.,I can put the lens on the glass side of the tank and take a pic of something on the inside of the glass. (I love it)

There once were some worms in a tank
That suddenly got very rank
Overfed with fish food
They became very rude
Refusing to swim, they just sank.​​


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Hehe, I was also a bit disgused with finding nematodes in my tank a few years ago, but they kinda grow on you as time goes on...


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

I know these worms, and I think they are in the genus, Stylaria. They live mostly in the mulm, and they feed on something in there. Something they pull on stuff, causing it to twitch, and you can see bits of debris twitching, but it is much harder to see the worm that is doing it. 

That is an amazing macro capability in your coolpix!!


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