4" red worm in my tank - what is it, where did it come from, & should I worry?
While doing a PW in my 55gal today, I noticed a small, squishy-looking splotch going up the siphon. Managed to catch it as it came out of the tap in the sink and found it was a reddish worm, about 3-4". Here's a picture of it on paper towel,
and another of it in a little dish of water,
I have no idea where it came from as I haven't added any thing new to the tank for quite a while. The only problem I have had recently was that one of my bolivian rams, had started spitting out all of his food, no matter what he was given, and eating nothing. I put him in QT, treated with salt and JL Parasite Clear, and after a week moved him back to my main tank this past Monday.
I don't offer any live food so it couldn't have been introduced that way. For food, I use:
Omega Sinking pellets (daily)
Hikari Carnivore pellets (every other day)
Hikari Algae wafers (ever other day)
frozen brine shrimp / frozen blood worms (once every other week)
boiled peas (once every other week)
Tetra Crisps (on occasion)
Don't know if it makes any difference but fish include BN pleco, cory cats, black skirt tetras, bolivian rams, dwarf gourami, and platy.
I wondered whether it might be related to the fish that I treated with the Parasite Clear, but that doesn't seem very likely, though if it's possible please correct me. I tried to do an extra-thorough job siphoning the gravel and in the plants but didn't find any thing else like this. Can anybody tell me what it is, where it might have come from, and whether I should be worried about it?
While doing a PW in my 55gal today, I noticed a small, squishy-looking splotch going up the siphon. Managed to catch it as it came out of the tap in the sink and found it was a reddish worm, about 3-4". Here's a picture of it on paper towel,
and another of it in a little dish of water,
I have no idea where it came from as I haven't added any thing new to the tank for quite a while. The only problem I have had recently was that one of my bolivian rams, had started spitting out all of his food, no matter what he was given, and eating nothing. I put him in QT, treated with salt and JL Parasite Clear, and after a week moved him back to my main tank this past Monday.
I don't offer any live food so it couldn't have been introduced that way. For food, I use:
Omega Sinking pellets (daily)
Hikari Carnivore pellets (every other day)
Hikari Algae wafers (ever other day)
frozen brine shrimp / frozen blood worms (once every other week)
boiled peas (once every other week)
Tetra Crisps (on occasion)
Don't know if it makes any difference but fish include BN pleco, cory cats, black skirt tetras, bolivian rams, dwarf gourami, and platy.
I wondered whether it might be related to the fish that I treated with the Parasite Clear, but that doesn't seem very likely, though if it's possible please correct me. I tried to do an extra-thorough job siphoning the gravel and in the plants but didn't find any thing else like this. Can anybody tell me what it is, where it might have come from, and whether I should be worried about it?