Long red worm found in gravel

[Maxhardcore]

Hi,

I have a large tank that mainly has guppies, balloon mollies and corydoras. Anyway, last week I was doing a water change and vacuuming the gravel and I ended up sucking up about 4 long reddish pink looking worms. They were reasonably smooth looking with millions of tiny legs. They were about 2 inches long each and tried to fight there way back into the substrate but I managed to catch them. Has my rank for years but was recently given the guppies and some live plants which did mess up the balance of my tank for a bit, bringing in a black fungus which I am continually fighting. I never had an issue with fungus or seen these worms before until I had added the guppies and the live plants. But the fish all seem reasonably happy. Any idea what these worms are, how they got in there and if they are dangerous to my fish? If so how do I get rid of them. Vacuumed up 4 already. Any ideas?

 

[Trainer_Ruby_]

It might be a nymph of some kind. Do you live near a body of water it could have come from?


Keep calm and drum on

 

[gemach7]

Sounds like insect larvae of some kind ie mosquito, beetle or such. There were Probably eggs on the plants.

Most larvae make a good fish snack, only ones I've ever had an issue with are dragon fly larvae but it doesn't sound like those.
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[Maxhardcore]

Not sure if was larvae as they were so large. I do think they came in on the live plants but these things were 2-3 inches long. I have not seen mosquito larvae that big before.

I do live near a large body of water - probably 300-400 metres away. but not sure if that could possibly be it.

 

[Gillie]

From your description, you have freshwater bristleworms(yes they do exist) but I couldn't possibly start to tell you how to get rid of them.

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