The Puffer Forum

Hey.. I recently started to try to breed different snails for puffer snack.. Pond snail are ok, mystery snails are kinda of slow growing put I think its good for the extra crunch.. the problem is with the ramhorn breeder tank.. There are always tons of worms in there. I recently change the ramhorn tank so there were some eggs cluster in there. I scrap them off and dumped them into a small tank. The water used are new dechlorined water. But after about 3 weeks, these are what I see in there. Any idea where they came from? normal?

The red blobs in the centre are the baby ramhorns, the side browinsh things are the poop I think.. Accompanied by tons of whitish unknown worms.. they are longish, doesnt seems like planaria.

I would guess that they are planaria. I had the same worms recently

But where would they come from?? They are always present in only my ramshorn tanks.. sometimes they are free swimming,wiggling.. aren't planaria more like flat broader "slug" like crawling on surface?

Small worms with triangle heads, must be those snails poop lots causing an over population of these worms. They are present in most tanks we just tend not to see them.

if you keep any smaller freshwater fishes then just feed the worms to them, mine quite enjoyed the small outbreak a long time ago. The outbreak did not last very long because of it .

Wild to see this post, because I too saw a worm just like this, "swimming" in my fish tank. I netted it, and tossed it. Glad to hear these are harmless.

Wouldn't a puffer eat these? I was scared it was some kind of parasite

I am not good with most posted photos (I I am visually handicapped), but those look like nematodes to me in the picture. They are normal tank inhabitants occurring in most tanks. Excess populations are a direct response to excess organics in the tank. We cannot measure those with hobby test kits. Just do daily water partial for a few days and the numbers will decline markedly. Most nematodes and planaria are harmless and are normal substrate inhabitants, but normal numbers mean they are all in the substrate. If they are visible in the open water and on the glasses, it means that dissolved organics (DOCs) are too high. Many fish do eat them but not all.

HTH

After RTR said the worms were nematodes, I went a did a search just to satisfy my curiosity and found this article

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/invert ... -nematodes

I found the info interesting and I thought you might enjoy the read. Makes me wonder if your creepy crawlers are in the filter...gives me goosebumps...ewwww

...just when ive thought ive read everything .....i get this. Worms. Knowing my luck I'm going to get home and find them. Only now because i know. . I know who they are but they probably already know me very well.

purplecandle wrote:After RTR said the worms were nematodes, I went a did a search just to satisfy my curiosity and found this article

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/invert ... -nematodes

I found the info interesting and I thought you might enjoy the read. Makes me wonder if your creepy crawlers are in the filter...gives me goosebumps...ewwww

Well.. I may be lucky in the sense that my snail tanks are all unfiltered and without aeration even.. They dun seems to mind. But, I do almost a 100% WC every 2 weeks.. More upkeeping is required I guess..

Strangely, this only happen to my ramhorn tanks. The other snails tanks does not have this. All are barebottom..

Seriously.. u guys should have a decent look at your snail tanks...

scpion wrote:

purplecandle wrote:After RTR said the worms were nematodes, I went a did a search just to satisfy my curiosity and found this article

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/invert ... -nematodes

I found the info interesting and I thought you might enjoy the read. Makes me wonder if your creepy crawlers are in the filter...gives me goosebumps...ewwww

Well.. I may be lucky in the sense that my snail tanks are all unfiltered and without aeration even.. They dun seems to mind. But, I do almost a 100% WC every 2 weeks.. More upkeeping is required I guess..

Strangely, this only happen to my ramhorn tanks. The other snails tanks does not have this. All are barebottom..

Seriously.. u guys should have a decent look at your snail tanks...

The only thing in my snail tanks other than snails is their poo . I did see one in my Figure8 tank a few weeks ago, but havent seen any since, so who knows maybe I got a few in the filter now .

Don't kid yourself that tanks have fish and just a couple of forms of bacteria. they are highly complex nicro-ecologies with myriad bacterial types plus fungi, infusorians, and macroscopic (visible to the naked eye) critters such as nematodes and planaria. Those huge populations are your friends. They are what keep your tanks stable and healthy. They also vary themselves with variations in what ans how much you feed and the way you do your maintenance. They are your friends and are as as adapted to you as the fish are.