a worm i discovered in my aquarium

[SeymourFRESH]

i found this tiny little guy in my 55 today, and i've seen another one in there before

i can only have 2 possible guesses to what it could be (could be far-fetched).

1) we an earthworm in there a while ago (like 4 months ago), so it could be an earthworm

2) the frozen bloodworms i usually feed came back to life and they're now living in my tank

otherwise, i'm clueless

 

[Devilishturtles]

Likely a nematode/flatworm/planaria. They come in on your fish as little microscopic particles. Most die off, but some live, and when your tank has excess nutrients in it (overfeeding, underfiltering, not performing enough maintenence) they grow and become visible to us.

Are they in your gravel, or free floating/swimming?

 

[SeymourFRESH]

well i've had planaria before, but those worms were TINY TINY white worms that looked like hairs practically

these worms are bigger (about 3/4") and they are all brown with a white tip on their tail

i did not see any free floating, these guys i got from the gravel when i was vacuming, as they ended up in my bucket

 

[jcarlilesiu]

My loach would eat that so fast, it loves finding little criters and snails for a snack

 

[Jaybird]

the tiny hair-like worms are in my tank right now. I never noticed them before, but I put in a small does of melafix and pimafix and *poof* they appeard out of nowhere like a cloud. Guess they didn't like it.'

The fish had a feast

I've never seen worms that big, but Apocolypse_Gold mentioned that they may be nematodes or planaria. It was freakin' gross to see them all floating in the water. I think they setup a colony in the filterpad.

Good luck with them

 

[rich311k]

Well it is not an earthworm. they will die under water. If it were a red worm that came to life it would not get much bigger, instead it would change into a bug.

 

[Zagz]

Any chance of a pic to better help with ID? I realize that may be very difficult.

 

[SeymourFRESH]

here's the closest possible picture i could find (internet picture zoomed in by a LOT)

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/s/b/sbj4/aquarium/psu_photogallery/microscope_pics/worm2.jpg

looks like that, except it's all solid colored up to the head. most common resemblence is that white tip on the tail

 

[SeymourFRESH]

well, i found ANOTHER worm (a different looking type) in my 10 gallon now, free floating. it was very tiny and had visible segments on it. almost kind of reminded me a pictures of chromosomes that i've seen in science class before :-/

i'm gonna vacuum the heck out of my 10 gallon now...i'll let you guys know if i find any more