Need Help Identifying This Worm Thing!

Subject: Need Help Identifying This Worm Thing! Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:37 am

I had gotten some water out of a friends pond thinking that would get me a start of daphnia. I also grabbed some hair/string algae which came with a couple pond snails. I've had all this in a 1g fish bowl for a couple months. I used my magnifying glass to see if I had any daphnia producing. Besides seeing the daphnia producing, there are these weird worms also. They are on the glass inside the fish bowl & here are a few pics of them ... (sorry the pics aren't the greatest)

Need Help Identifying This Worm Thing! Unknow10

Need Help Identifying This Worm Thing! Unknow11

Need Help Identifying This Worm Thing! Unknow12

Thanks ahead of time for anyones help!

Subject: Re: Need Help Identifying This Worm Thing! Thu Jul 23, 2009 1:59 pm

Could be Detritus Worms. Have a look here and see what you think. CLICK

Subject: Re: Need Help Identifying This Worm Thing! Thu Jul 23, 2009 3:20 pm

Sure does look a lot like it but the one in the link you gave me doesn't have that white-ish band on it like my photos but then again it looks like they didn't fit the whole worm in their photo.
Whatever they are, they are sure creeping me out! I'll have to let my friend with the pond know that she should get a better filtration system or something to get rid of them. I guess I'll just have to throw out the daphnia & all now. I don't want to be feeding the daphnia to the fry in my tanks & introduce these things in there also.
Anybody got any "clean" daphnia starters to sell? lol

The Turtle Whisperer Posts : 1930

I agree with Ed. Detritus worms. They're the freshwater equivalent of the land based composting worms. I usually get some when I get plants out of the pond near my house. They're harmless, or at least the ones I've seen are.

A few minnows or small comets makes them all vanish fairly quickly.

Subject: Re: Need Help Identifying This Worm Thing! Thu Jul 23, 2009 5:12 pm

So it's nothing that will harm my fry? I just don't want to cause them to get any diseases or the like!

The Turtle Whisperer Posts : 1930

From what I know of 'em they live in natural (not man made) ponds eating the uh.. detritus. They get into man made outdoor ponds that get extremely scuzzy or, for those of us that like to go dig out a cat tail or two from the big pond to put into the pond on the deck. Smile

The ones I have around here, look and act like mini earthworms. They get eaten like mini earthworms too. I am *sure* there are some still in the plants in my pond and the goldies are still pumping out babies like there's no tomorrow.

That being said, the fish in that pond are feeder fish, so while I don't think it's any problem (and the ones I have aren't) I'm not 100% sure and did I mention they're feeders? Smile

If you're concerned your best bet may be to just test out a handful of fry in with 'em and see what happens.

Subject: Re: Need Help Identifying This Worm Thing! Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:30 am

Thanks so much for the help & answers guys! Smile

» ACF chowing a nice worm

Need Help Identifying This Worm Thing!

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