# Please ID my strange little worms



## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

I have a 10 day old El Natural tank, heavily planted. The only intentional fauna at this point are a few wild type cherry shrimp and ramshorn snails.

Every day I see a few small white worms in the tank. They are about the thickness of a human hair, and vary from 1/8" to 1/2" long. (There are probably smaller ones that I have not noticed.) They can crawl on solid surfaces, even the glass. And they can swim freely through the water with a horizontal undulating motion, like an eel or snake. They aren't stong swimmers, but they can make it across the tank (20 gallon) in less than a minute if the filter is turned off.

So, what are they? Dreaded parasite or harmless hitch-hiker?

--Michael


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Almost certainly harmless. They sound like nematodes that live on algae or bacterial films. However, I have never seen free-living freshwater nematodes a half inch long, so I am unsure. Could you get a picture?


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## JohnPaul (Aug 28, 2006)

Picture would be helpful, but they do sound like harmless nematodes to me. I used to have some in a shrimp tank when I first set it up as well. Most fish will happily eat them so one option would be, if you have any fish that are small enough such that they won't harm the shrimp (and who would see the nematodes as a viable enough "meal") would be to introduce a couple of small fish to the tank for maybe a week or so. Don't feed the fish, they will naturally start hunting around the tank for food and should clean up the nematode problem. I used two small Endlers (which I actually later learned were Endler-Guppy hybrids but the point is, they were the size of Endlers) for this purpose. Then after about a week I removed the Endlers and put them back in their old tank, and the nematode problem was gone.

Temporarily adding a slightly more "carnivorous" shrimp, like a few ghost/glass shrimp, to the tank might achieve the same effect.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Thanks!

My only camera is a 10 year old point and shoot. The close focusing is probably not equal to the task of photographing these worms, but I'll try.

This tank will get small fish as soon as it matures a little. The worms looked like tasty snacks for fish to me too, so I'll let them multiply for a while.

--Michael


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## JohnPaul (Aug 28, 2006)

Michael said:


> This tank will get small fish as soon as it matures a little. The worms looked like tasty snacks for fish to me too, so I'll let them multiply for a while.
> 
> --Michael


The key is to find small enough fish; once fish get too large, then the nematodes basically are too small for the fish to bother with them. I think that's why the Endlers worked so well for me, they are tiny fish so the nematodes are proportionally large enough to get their attention.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

My fish wish list includes golden white clouds, kuhli loaches, otocinclus, and, maybe. . .tiger Endlers!


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## JohnPaul (Aug 28, 2006)

Michael said:


> My fish wish list includes golden white clouds, kuhli loaches, otocinclus, and, maybe. . .tiger Endlers!


I assume you mean for some tank OTHER than your shrimp tank, yes?  Of that list, Ottos are the only ones I would trust in a shrimp tank where I was hoping to successfully breed shrimp...the babies would be readily eaten by any of the other fish on that list.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

This is not my dedicated shrimp tank. The shrimp are N. heteropoda that were given me by a friend who was breeding them as feeders for his chiclids. They may have started out long ago as red cherries, but have reverted to type after years of no selection for color.

They are my introduction to shimp keeping, and I like them so much that I plan to set up a tank just for shrimp. I would like to get some of the yellow color morph of N. heteropoda.


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## JohnPaul (Aug 28, 2006)

Michael said:


> This is not my dedicated shrimp tank. The shrimp are N. heteropoda that were given me by a friend who was breeding them as feeders for his chiclids. They may have started out long ago as red cherries, but have reverted to type after years of no selection for color.
> 
> They are my introduction to shimp keeping, and I like them so much that I plan to set up a tank just for shrimp. I would like to get some of the yellow color morph of N. heteropoda.


Gotcha. Though I will correct one thing, Red Cherrys (RCS) will not "revert" back to the wild color if you have a pure strain of RCS. However, what people sometimes do is mix in the same tank multiple types of shrimp: RCS, Yellow Shrimp, Blue Pearl Shrimp, and Snowball Shrimp are all _Neocaridina_ species and they will all interbreed. When they do, the genes for those special colors are lost and they revert back to their natural wild (brown/clear) coloration. So most likely your friend, or else whoever it was your friend got his shrimp from, mixed his RCS with another species and eventually over time, the gene for the Red color was bred out.

(Which means for you when you DO get your RCS, do not put them in the same tank as your wild color _Neocaridinas_ or the same thing will happen to you.)


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

This is why I am moving the wild type _Neocaridina_ into the 20 gallon. When I get some yellow shrimp I want the babies to stay that color. Plus the wild coloration will help these shrimp to escape the fish with which they will eventually share the tank.


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## Aelyph Finrel (Apr 26, 2010)

Do they look anything like this?:


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

If your strange little worms have a fixed, unchanging length and can only bend from side to side, then they are nematodes. If they can change their length by extending or contracting, then they are annelids If they are annelids, then they are likely fresh water oligochaetes, relatives of earthworms.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

I never thought my worms would excite so much interest!

Aelyph, my worms do not look like that. They are pure white in color and the body diameter is smaller in relation to their length. My worms swim actively like an eel and can control their direction, at least in still water. Also, I have never seen them partly buried in the substrate, or on the substrate at all. They always appear swimming, and if I watch they will swim to some other solid object in the tank and then crawl along the surface with the same undulating motion. Once on an object they are almost unoticeable--it is the swimming that attracts the eye. They are smaller in relation to my shrimp than the worms in your first video clip.

HeyPK, expanding and contracting is not something I have specifically looked for, but I do not remember them doing so. The movement of their bodies is always in the horizontal plane, never vertical. Are nematodes segmented? I'll dig out the manifying glass and keep it near the aquarium.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

i'm thinking that they are planaria
here's a picture
http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/planaria_white_worms/
too much uneaten food on bottom, but you said it was heavily planted so should the carpet have used the uneaten food?


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

No, they are not planaria. I used to have a colony of those ages ago. These worms do not have eye spots or triangular heads like planaria.

Planaria are harmless. I was amused by the suggestions in the link you posted. First it says not to over-react, then it gives the most draconian tank cleaning directions, complete with repeated gravel washings and chemical warfare. I'd hate to see what they consider actual "over-reaction".


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

Yes i think that the second picture is misleading but thats wild freshwater planaria somethibg that came out of a 6th grade science books and is probably magnified. But ive had the exact same thing he was describing and thats the best photo representation. Another thing with the creature(not sure if its planaria) is that it forms like these underwater spider webs... I rid myself of them by throwing away my regular gravel and restarting the tank with plants


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## tex627 (Nov 2, 2008)

i've had it before. usually hitch hike from plants. if you're going to add fish in there, dont worry about it. the fish will take care of it. population usually declines when there is less food. so less decaying plants and no left over food. i had it when i over fed my tank. 

you can also add fenbendazole (dogdewormer). its works on all sluggish, and worm like creatures. sometimes even agaisnt protozoa like ich. 1 dosage and it should be gone.


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## Amante_di_Betta (Aug 31, 2010)

I agree..sound like nematodes..my small fry usually eat them before I can do anything about them...I usually do a waterchange if I do see them eating them though..


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Nematodes are not segmented. Here is a picture of a freshwater nematode.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Obviously I must catch one of these creatures and put it under a microscope and photograph it. Wait, I don't have a microscope, much less one with a camera!


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Look at this video on YouTube:






That's what I have in my tank! Now can anyone tell me what they are?


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Michael said:


> Look at this video on YouTube:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Looks like "White Worms" to me. They live in soils and feed off organic matter. They also make yummy mosels for your fish.

Do you have natural soil inyour tank (or did you put something in it from your yard) ?


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Yes, this is an El Natural, and the aquarium was originally filled with water from my pond.

The video was posted on The Planted Tank Forum, where a similar discussion was started by someone else who has these little friends in his tank. Concensus of opinion there is that the worms are a harmless nematode that lives on wet objects near the surface of the water, feeding on general organic debris and biofilm. I have a lot of emersed driftwood in my tank that would provide ideal habitat.

DaveMonkey, does this sound like your white worms? I've heard of white worms, but never seen any.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Michael,

That is indeed a white worm, but it is not the "White Worm" (Enchytraeus albidus) that is used as a live fish food. I used to see the worm in your video in one of my tanks from time to time, I think it hitchhiked in on some plants. I would see one from time to time, especially if I disturbed the substrate, and if a fish saw it it would be eaten. I never had a problem with them affecting the fish. After a tank cleaning, I did not see them again. If you have a population, Corys may help reduce the numbers.

I raise Enchytraeus albidus as a live food for my fish. They are terrestrial and seem to live about 24 hours in water. Adult Enchytraeus albidus are about 50% larger than the aquatic white worm in your video.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Thanks, everyone! I'll bet the planned group of Khuli loaches will take care of any excess worms.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

To bring this to a close, I put 6 white clouds in the tank two days ago. So far the score is:

White clouds 6
Nematodes 0

Every worm that I have seen since the fish went in the tank has been promptly eaten. Three kuhli loaches went in at the same time. I can't seen them enough of the time to keep score, but let's say if you are a nematode in that tank, you can swim but you cannot hide.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

If it is the worm in the video, it is definitely not a nematode, but an annelid, a freshwater relative of earthworms.


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