Little red worms in the filter

[TimTam22]

I found little red worms in my jebo 819 yesterday when i cleaned it, there didn't seem to be many and i crushed the ones i could see... they appeared to be alive but didn't move much. I havn't seen anything in the tank or fish and i do weekly gravel vac's. Plus I just changed the gravel since i moved the tank to a darker gravel (had white) which was cleaned well so i don't think there will be many in there and i didn't see any in the white gravel when i was scoping it out.

Fish seem fine, i haven't had any deaths in that tank for quite awhile and i havn't added any newbies for ages (i think)

ANY ideas on what these are and will they do any harm??

Should i treat the tank, if so what with?? or just leave them be??

[Caryl]

Since nothing seems affected I would leave them be. I get small red worms appearing in my outside ponds. They are the larvae of something but I can't think what at the moment. The tpye of red worms that attack fish's gills etc live in the fish I believe, not elsewhere. Someone might say I am wrong though so don't quote me. :roll:

Small white ones are planaria and harmless.

[TimTam22]

thanks caryl, hopefully your right :roll:

[Insect Direct]

I maybe wrong but i think theyre larvae from little midgies (sp?) and are the same as bloodworms, so should be harmless and your fish may even eat them given a chance!!

I could be wrong though, merry xmas :lol: :lol:

[TimTam22]

well the filter sat outside for two nights lid on but without the tubes on maybe somthing happened then???

[Insect Direct]

Sounds very possible if im right about the midgies been the culprits that have bloodworms as larvae.

Hopefully someone else can shed some light on that as Im not so sure im correct!

[supasi]

agreed mincie

i have a plastic rubbish bin filled with bog wood and rain water, i use water from this for my dwarf ciclid water changes, it has a colony of healthy mossie larvae and also juicy big bloodworms, not %100 sure how got there but midge flies very likely,

ps. the fish wolf em down :lol: :lol: :lol:

[alanmin4304]

Could also be tubifex worms. I have them in my turtle tank, but they need a fair bit of gunge as food and are in this case introduced on weed from the river.

[TimTam22]

Oh really I haven't added anything from a river (i think :-? ) but all the fish seem fine so far so i'm not too worried about them, I'll just keep an eye on things....thanks for all the ideas

[Caryl]

I think tubifex worms need really filthy conditions so the midge larvae are more likely.

[TimTam22]

yea it hadn't been cleaned in awhile but it wasn't that bad :lol:

[alanmin4304]

Tubifex will survive OK in a relatively clean tank if there is a bit of food. I know this from the good old days when we used to supply most of the shops with tubifex and it was all but copulsory for eveyone to feed them. They need a lot of food to multiply to the extent that you can harvest them though. It would be unlikely to be tubifex if they have not been introduced with live food or plant from the river. Mine no doubt came in on plant from the river fed to the turtles.

[Insect Direct]

Whats the reason behind the shops not selling live tubifex these days??

Were they eays enough to culture, theyd be great live food i would of thought?

[sharn]

they are pretty good disease carriers due to the filth they live in but most people cultivate them in cleaner conditions i beleive. im very wary of any live food which is from fresh water

[alanmin4304]

They used to be in every pet shop and most people fed them. I used to use them almost entirely and used to raise 50,000 tropical fish a year without any disease problems. They feed on protein and used to be in large quantities down stream from outfalls from freezing works with a lot of blood in the effluent. We had one shop in Christchurch that used to take 45 pounds twice a week. It all went away when the outfalls were cleaned up by the Regional Council. Some people have tried to culture it but without succes I think. You flush it out in clean running water for a few days before you use it. I used to send it to the North Island and it was worth more than steak.