Worms????????

[hennaartist]

So I was cleaning my daughters 3 gallon betta tank (which is also home to a blue mystery snail), and for the first time noticed WORMS. I'm fairly experienced at fish keeping and have 2 other much larger tanks, but I've never had worms living in the water! I do feed my fish frozen blood and tubifex worms, but I assume those are dead.

What is this? Will it hurt her fish? And what do I need to do?

 

[Gillie]

Looks like a blackworm, are there any live plants in the tank that they could have hitchhiked on? Unless you fed them to the fish at one time I don't know how else it could end up there.

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[hennaartist]

There are two live plants, but I have had those for a few years in other tanks (none of which have these worms). Are black worms harmful?

 

[hennaartist]

They are round shaped worms and are clear in color.

 

[Hulka9]

Black worms arent clear. If it was a blackworm it wouldnt be a problem. I feed them to my fish all the time.

Thats pretty long for a blackworm too. I have no idea what that is.

 

[Gillie]

Clear eh, have you ever seen them wiggling through the water column?

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[Gillie]

Black worms arent clear. If it was a blackworm it wouldnt be a problem. I feed them to my fish all the time.

Thats pretty long for a blackworm too. I have no idea what that is.

From the shading it kinda looks like a blackworm, I've seen them range from really dark to translucent brown and larger blackworms can be a few inches long when stretched out and on the move.

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[Gillie]

It's at least some other type of detritus worm if it's not a blackworm, as to how it got there who knows, but it is unlikely anything more that a meal if the betta can get it.

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[hennaartist]

They are probably 4 inches or 10 cm in length. I have not seen them moving through the water, only partially emerging from the gravel. In watching them I have noticed that if you cast a shadow on them or a snail touches them the quickly retract into the gravel. It's hard to get a decent pic because they seem translucent, additionally the glare on the glass doesn't help matters.

 

[hennaartist]

If I knew they were safe for the fish to eat, I'd drop my banjo cat in there for a day or two, but my luck it's a parasite. So I'm definitely not going to do that.

 

[Gillie]

I think it is some species of detritus worm or another, if it were a parasite it would not be in your substrate as gravel doesn’t make a good host to feed off of

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