# I've got worms?



## Animal House (Jun 1, 2006)

Hell Diana Walstad and others,

I started a 38 gallon planted tank a little over a year ago with various hardy species planted in approximately 3 inches of garden soil no additives and 2 inches of aquarium gravel. All was well for about a year until about three months ago some of the soil began to find its way on top of the gravel. As time went on the aquarium became more and more cloudy. This sparked increased water changes etc only to have it revert to its cloudy state in a week and hence more water changes, vacuuming, filters poly fiber, fluval, carbon etc and still only immediate improvements. What I had noticed in this time however, was large mounds of feces approximately the diameter of a quarter and half and inch tall piles with strands no bigger than the led of a mechanical pencil. One night I happened to turn on the light unexpectedly and I swear I saw something that resembled a bristle worm in a reef tank. I believe it is these “worms” that are making my water cloudy by disturbing the substrate. Can anyone tell me what they are and how to manage them?


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

Hi, what fish species do you have in your tank? Hungry fish should be the best management tactic. In fact, I'm jealous! I'd love for my fish to have live food to hunt in their natural tank.

Miss Fishy is an expert with worms and recently wrote about worms clouding her water by waving those bristles above the substrate. She could tell you more than me.

But here's a previous thread she started about such worms, and if you search in El Natural, I'm sure you'll find other "worm threads," so to speak, as well .

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...ng-feathery-worm.html?highlight=bristle+worms


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

I'm hardly an _expert_ on aquatic worms! :biggrin: More like an interested observer.

Wow, Animal House, I'm so excited to hear that someone else has these interesting worms too! I wonder if they are the same kind as the ones I have in my tank? How big are they? What colour? Do their bristles undulate along the length of the worm?

Have you tried looking into your tank with a torch (flashlight) at night? You would get a better idea of just how many you actually have in the tank. In my tank they usually stay hidden during the day except for some brave individuals who sit in the the Hairgrass where the fish can't get them. If you find millions all over the place at night, but none during the day, you would probably need a nocturnal fish like a loach if you want to get rid of them using fish. The only problem might be that most nocturnal, worm-eating fish stir up the substrate as they dig about, so your water might end up even cloudier!

Do you have any circulation in the tank? My tank with the worms has no circulation so the cloudiness stays just above the substrate surface. If you can't (or, like me, don't want to) eradicate the worms you could try removing the circulation and see if the cloudiness in your tank settles into a "layer" too.

Here is a link to the thread I wrote about my cloudiness problem.

From Alex.


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## Animal House (Jun 1, 2006)

Thanks Javalee and Miss Fishy. I probably should include a few more details about the tank. I have ten Rasboras, 3 cory cats, 3 otocinclus and 12 cherry shrimp. I also have a fluval 404 which provides plenty of circulation and also aids in the cloudiness when these worms leave there mounds of silt feces at the top of the substrate. I would love to find a natural way without killing anything else in my tank to maybe not eradicate them but reduce their population enough so that I’m not left with 1/8 of an inch of silt on my substrate every week. It’s made this tank a lot of work to stay esthetically pleasing. I have snuck up on these worms with a flashlight but have only seen a few that were orange in color and disappeared so fast I couldn’t really see if it had bristles or not. Any further help would be appreciated! Thanks again.


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

How about some sort of catfish for eating the worms at night? They are nocturnal. Does anyone know if they would eat worms? I had a blue channel cat for a while and he was a voracious night bottom feeder.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Animal House said:


> I have snuck up on these worms with a flashlight but have only seen a few that were orange in color and disappeared so fast I couldn't really see if it had bristles or not.
> 
> 
> > I don't know if this would work, but try using a red light of some sort. Some army issue flashlights have red lenses to make the light red so you don't damage your night vision. You can also use those red report covers or red camera lenses. The worms might not be able to detect the red light as let you get a better look at them.
> ...


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Could you sneak up in the dark with a camera? Get the camera set up beforehand for a flash picture?

Who knows what you might capture in this photograph. :loco:


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

I find this fascinatng. Truly, you can't buy such mysterious critters at a pet store! I'm wondering how they got there if you used garden soil. I wonder if they can live in "suspended animation" in dry soil until water is around.

Miss Fishy has a great point. Maybe NOT having a filter would be a plus in this situation, allowing the mulm to settle.

I wanna see a photo too, Daina .


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## Animal House (Jun 1, 2006)

I’ll see what I can do about getting a photo, but in the mean time does anyone know of a natural predator besides loaches that won’t eat my shrimp or snails? Thanks again everyone!


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## mrbelvedere138 (Jan 18, 2006)

Wanna kill an invert? Copper.


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

So, Animal House, did you manage to get a photo of the worms? 

I found that the worms in my tank got used to the torch (flashlight) after I had used it a few times. Now I can shine the light right onto them and they don't retract into the substrate. 

If you don't want to kill your shrimp and snails, don't use copper because it will do just that. 

From Alex.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Hey... could you worm experts come take a look at these worms and see if you know what they are?


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

They look like blackworms to me. My blackworms like to stick out of the substrate like that. Do they wave slowly back and forth, or do they undulate from top to bottom? Blackworms tend to wave slowly, while Tubifex worms undulate, or at least they do in my tanks! 

From Alex.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Thanks Alex... Dunno. I'll ask her.


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