# CRS tank have blood worms in aqua soil



## armedbiggiet (May 6, 2006)

My CRS tank have blood worms in the aqua soil and they actually sticking there heads out looks like hair grass except they would move. The shrimps would not do any thing as they are too fast to get back in the soil. I have one dwarf puffer but this guy is not on the ground all the time. I had never feed the live worms and have no idea how they got there.


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## rhodophyta (Jan 23, 2006)

It does not sound like bloodworms. They are an insect larva so a female would have to get into your house and lay eggs in the aquarium. Do you have small children that leave the doors open in the summer?  Bloodworms build a tube of debris around them flat on surfaces, not standing up and waving. All you usually see is the head of each worm working on its tube. If you destroy a tube, the larva will swim about and you can see the insect-like body segments. 

In a well oxygenated tank, Dero related worms will create standing tufts of reddish (also yellowish, white and clear depending on which kind) worms that could be what you are seeing. They are small, like short fine hairs. Larger worms, thicker than hairs, are probably tubificids.


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## tex627 (Nov 2, 2008)

first off, I would take the puffer out as it is likely to pick off young shrimp when your CRS start to breed. I've had those worms in a shrimp tank before. They look like california black worms. they might have hitchhiked into your tank through plants.

believe it orr not, shrimp sometimes are able to catch them and eat them.

Dont worry about it. they are harmless, just dont overfeed to prevent them from taking over your tank.


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## hamsterman (Sep 19, 2006)

I agree that they sound like blackworms. Just make sure you don't overfeed too much if you don't want the blackworm pop. increasing too much.


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## rhodophyta (Jan 23, 2006)

hamsterman said:


> I agree that they sound like blackworms. Just make sure you don't overfeed too much if you don't want the blackworm pop. increasing too much.


I hve the impression the worms are red, thin and hairlike. Black worms are none of the above and would need a very cool tank with a chiller working hard. _Dero sp._ worms and their close allies, (e.g. _Nais_ etc.)are thin, often red, sometimes yellow or clear but not black, and very adaptable to room temperature or heated aquariums. Being the most abundant aquatic worm in North America and easy to import in the aquarium via rocks, driftwood and plants increases the odds that is what they are. _Dero_ et al. provide the bulk of the food for small fry of North American native fishes.


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## Viwwo (Oct 30, 2009)

AAAAAH!!!! now I have them and they are offensive looking!... there is about 20 of them around two arias. So I'll see if I could suck them up and bring over my friends fish that likes to nip down at the bottom.
I don't think that my cory will do much about it.

I just want them out!


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## NatalieT (Mar 20, 2007)

rhodophyta said:


> I hve the impression the worms are red, thin and hairlike. Black worms are none of the above and would need a very cool tank with a chiller working hard


The description matches some worms that are commonly sold for fishfood, and are called "california blackworms." (I don't know if they really *are* blackworms, I just know what they're* called*.) The instructions usually say to store them in a refrigerator, but some people have them successfully living in normal-temperature aquariums. Here's one discussion about them: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/el-natural/63752-blackworms-substrate.html There are some pictures in that thread of which worms are being discussed, so it might be helpful if the original poster is still trying to identify the worms.


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## Franzi (Dec 7, 2009)

Sounds like the worms that appear in a tank which is overfed or full of plant debris. I don't remember what they're called, but I too thought they were blackworms (since they looked just like Califormia blackworms). They disappear after a few water changes and less feeding.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

Chill! It's free food.

The Cories love finding live stuff in the gravel. The Cories are predators not scavengers. Do not be fooled by their tolerance and pleasant demeanor. Live bugs is what they normally eat, if they can find them.


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## Viwwo (Oct 30, 2009)

Chill?!? Did you ever have them??... they are small and long and cover the bottom. It’s not a nice view first thing in the morning. They seem to be more active in the dark. Every time the cories come by over them the worms just hide and pop back out five min later. The cories are not doing anything. BUT I AM!
So yesterday after I came from work I took out two of my 2 gallon tubs, one glass jug ( J ), lots of paper towel ( PT ), two plastic cups (the big ones that are white inside) one rubber band ( RB )and a lean mean sucking machine (the gravel vacuum.) Then I put on some music because I knew it will take a long time.
So I went on to vacuum the 10 gallon tank. Under ever rock and plant and in the corners I was finding them little suckers. I must have sucked up about 40 of them.. the longest one was 3 inches! It took me about two hours. I would have done it longer but I had to get ready for my works holiday party. 
With about 80% water loss I could not just change it all so with the J, PT, RB I made this little filtration by putting the PT on the opening of the J making a little funnel a holding it with the RB. I would then take the two cups and fill it up with the water from the tub and pour the water in to the PT funnel to have nice clean water and put that water back in the aquarium. The thing is, is that I would double the PT and change it every time I would pour out the water from the J. That is because I don’t know how small the little guys get and I feel like the pores in the PT get bigger after some time because of the water pushing the PT down.
So the whole thing I done twice in about an hour. I know there still are more of them in there, infact I seen two today!
I’ll do the same thing tomorrow and then again two days after that. Also, I’ll only feed my fish once every two days from now on. 
Man, I really don’t want them there.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

Yes, I have had them.

Cories are used to foraging in gravel for live stuff and they seem to enjoy it.

Feeding once a day should be the minimum, not the norm and the fish seem to do better. Do your water changes if you have that type of tank. Lots of fresh food and clean water seem to cause rapid growth and a lot of spawning activity.

At one time I fed my Goldfish once a week but they also ate my plants and whatever else they could find. Fish are very small and they can see (or somehow sense) things much too small for us to see. Fish are ideally suited to their enviornment therefore they do not need much food and even though they always act hungry lots of leftover food is generally available to them. A lot of fish root around in the gravel and they are not doing this for giggles.


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## NatalieT (Mar 20, 2007)

Viwwo said:


> Chill?!? Did you ever have them??... they are small and long and cover the bottom. It's not a nice view first thing in the morning


Yes, I have some too. In fact, I think my cories had finally wiped them out, so I just bought more and put them in. The cories and the cherry shrimp are quite pleased! I think it's rather interesting to see all those little brown ends waving around above the gravel. Obviously, different people like different things: since you don't like the worms, then I wish you luck in getting rid of them. I wonder if, instead of vacuuming the worms out of the gravel, if might be easier to just take all the gravel out of the tank for a day or two, and let the shrimp and some cories or whatever fish you've got handy eat the worms? If the worms couldn't hide, I don't think they'd last very long!


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## Viwwo (Oct 30, 2009)

Hmm Cliff, did you get rid of them (if you wanted) 
Yeah, I do change my water every week. Its just for two weeks I did not vacuum the gravel because I thought the stuff in it could be good food for the plants.
Before when I vacuumed my gravel every week. I would seen one or two of the worms being sucked up but I thought it was just poop. 
Hearing all you guys think that they are not bad but good I’ll leave the ones I did not vacuum in the tank. I guess I just kind of freaked out when I seen 20 of them just pooping out one morning. 
I don’t mind one or two. But when I will start seeing 20 again I will them out again and if anyone would want them I’ll mail some to you.


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## tex627 (Nov 2, 2008)

the worms are actually good for the plants. like earthworms, they will loosen up the soil and fertilize you plants. in your case, they could even be fish food. just remember not to over feed as that will cause the worm population to go nuts.


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

I paid a lot of money for the Blackworms and there are threads where folk are trying to raise them so no I was not trying to get rid of them. I overfed on purpose to keep the fish fat and growing and the Cories always had plenty of worms to hunt for. Getting rid of them was not in my reasons so keeping a colony going was a good thing. A live food was part of the regimen to breeding fish and keeping them healthy so Blackworms were always a very easy option. Keeping Drosophila melanogaster and other live stuff was never as easy as the Blackworms so I had a tendency to use the worms.


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## Viwwo (Oct 30, 2009)

AAAH!!!! ok so a week ago I went all out and sucked as much as I can thinking I'm going to have some peace for maybe a month. They came back with a vengeance!! 
. o O (I guess I can start a business.)
Ok so I have some pictures. 

























The cories are really not doing anything. The little guys are just to quick.


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## rhodophyta (Jan 23, 2006)

Impossible to tell from the photo but they don't look much like most free living nematodes. They could be a parasitic worm. Go to the cattle section of Tractor Supply for a Levamisole hydrochloride wormer. If it's parasitic, it would also be inside all your fish as well as in the gravel. The ones in the gravel would be replenished every time the fish go poop. This would cause a sudden huge increase in visible worms, but then you could clear them out before they begin dying.


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## Viwwo (Oct 30, 2009)

I don't know.... they are just to big and the small ones are just to big for my fish. They kind of look like Tubifex.
But I could also take out a fish or two and put it somewhere else and see if they will poop one out. But that is kind of the last ting I want to do.
I also have a few of them in a bag... so if anyone would want to take a look at then I could mail a few out.


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## feiyang (Jan 27, 2007)

- Try other fishes? maybe golden fish? 

- Aquarium medications? maybe some kind of tubifex pest control? (need to take out shrimps)

- Pest trap? Take out all fish and shrimps, put in pest trap with some food and see if they climb into the trap.

Good luck!


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## Viwwo (Oct 30, 2009)

feiyang said:


> - Try other fishes? maybe golden fish?
> 
> - Aquarium medications? maybe some kind of tubifex pest control? (need to take out shrimps)
> 
> ...


see feiyang, all your ideas are good..... but I do got the shrimp....... baby shrimp are hard to find. Gold fish will eat them (and I don't know what to do with it after) poison will kill them maybe the the trap will work... Now I have to think of a trap.

I could use tape and make a little box around it with small holes and then put food in the middle.. they cant swim so they will have to go thought the tape + I would put it in the gravel so that the fish wont get in to it. Now will it work... I bet not.

Another thing is that I want to get a 30g. tank around March and make that as my one and only, so hell with them. But if I want to take out the plants and put then in my new aquarium what do I have to do so that the worms are not on the plants?


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## OrangeCones (Aug 15, 2009)

rhodophyta said:


> I hve the impression the worms are red, thin and hairlike. Black worms are none of the above and would need a very cool tank with a chiller working hard.


The black worm IS red, thin, and hairlike (at least when young), and can be bred in water up to the mid-80s with no problems. The warmer the water, the faster they multiply (if given food).

If they ARE black worms and the OP wants to get rid of them, the best way I've seen is to make one side of the tank bare (remove or stack the gravel on the other side). Then put a few algae wafers or sinking pellets on the bare side. The worms will migrate to where the food is and can be syphoned out (turkey baster or an airline tube) quite easily. It may take a few days of doing this to get them all, but it can be done. The shrimp will likely go to the bare side to get the food too, which is fine. Just don't feed them on the gravel side, or it will just encourage the worms to feed from there.


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## Viwwo (Oct 30, 2009)

HMMM.... YEAH! I'll do that OrangeCones.
See I would keep them but really, the fish are not doing anything. All I see is worms more and more, and more and more dead ones. I never did over feed my fish and there is no dead plants. I don't want to get another fish because I have no more room and bigger fish could go after my baby shrimp or my tetras. So I'll try what you said.

And happy holidays to all.


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## OrangeCones (Aug 15, 2009)

If you see more and more, there is excess food for the worms to breed with. If they are also dying, it sounds like inconsistant feeding. 

Dead worms will very quickly degrade the water quality (just as a dead fish would, or decayed plant matter), so do be careful about ammonia/nitrite spikes. What is bad about dead worms is they often go unnoticed under the gravel while a deceased fish will be visable in the water so that you can easily remove it.

Good luck and keep us posted on the removal process.


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## kvntran (Nov 9, 2007)

I got rid of some small white worms in my shrimp tank using SafeGuard Dog de-wormer, Walmart has this med too. The worms are all dead, but no effect on any shrimps including the babies. Google for the exact dosage, I think I used 0.1 gram for 10 gallon, but please double check. Don't know if it will work on this kind of worms, but it wouldn't hurt to try.


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## tex627 (Nov 2, 2008)

I'm pretty sure fabendazole would work on black worms. but the thing is black worms are much bigger than planaria(white worms) and it seems like you have more than just a few black worms. If you throw fabendazole in and all the black worms die, thats a lot of dead matter for your bio filter to deal with. 

Again, if you just dont overfeed(or not feed for a couple days), they're population will shrink and go down dramatically.


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## Viwwo (Oct 30, 2009)

So far so good. It’s been almost a week and so far no worms. Today I am moving the plants around because the tetras found some really good hiding places in them and feeding the little fish has been hard because of that (I have to be all ninja like.) So when I’m doing that I will give the gravel another good vacuum.


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