# IDENTIFY -- worm-like things in my plant tank



## FONE (May 21, 2013)

Keep finding these worm-y things in my plant tank, and keep removing them manually, but whenever I go and tousle the plants a bit, I find a few of these show up.

Please see youtube below. Thanks.


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## FireWolf (Jul 8, 2013)

please correct me if I am wrong but I think it might be Detritus Worms

from what I can gather this is what it says about them on the net.

http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2007/03/trematodes-and-nematodes-in-fish.html#annelids


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Are they pinkish and super, super skinny ? It's a bit hard to tell on the video. Maybe 3/8" long.. perhaps a half inch, some of them? When they're swimming, do they look like a series of thrashing S curves ?

If yes, they are probably detritus worms and may, in fact, be Dero worms. Dero worms are tiny oligocheates, [ sp?].. and if you don't want them I sure do ! I've been wanting some for a long time. They are harmless, but if you have a load of them it may mean you are overfeeding. Most fish will eat them, and they can't hurt anything.

If you're willing to put any you find in a jar with bit of substrate for a few days, I'd love to have them and could come get them next Thursday. I want to culture them.

Buying them is quite hard, few here bother to culture them. I can get them in the US, but only if I pay the Fish and Wildlife Dept. 200 bucks to inspect them first. That's not happening!


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## FONE (May 21, 2013)

They're pinkish and super skinny, yes. And when they're swimming around, it's like a S-wave.

I put the ones I found into a mini Minute Maid plastic bottle, with some gravel at the bottom. They're sitting in the tank water right now.

Are they beneficial? I've been removing them from the plant tank for a while now. There are no fish in there.


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

Those worms are pretty good live food, I had tons of them in my cherry shrimp tank and I feed it to my baby rainbowfish, man did that rainbow grow fast and big. I was feed it like 6-8 worms a day for like a month

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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

Stir them up and see if they form a ball

Both types are great live food. I keep large amounts of both. 
I feed them to fry and adult fish


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## FONE (May 21, 2013)

Jackson said:


> Stir them up and see if they form a ball
> 
> Both types are great live food. I keep large amounts of both.
> I feed them to fry and adult fish


They do! Hmm... are these easy to grow?  Do you mind providing a decent-sized starter culture for me [and Fishfur]? My culling [thinking they were bad news] may have stunted the growth process... 

Thanks!


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

Jackson said:


> Stir them up and see if they form a ball
> 
> Both types are great live food. I keep large amounts of both.
> I feed them to fry and adult fish


Do you keep them in Their own tanks? If so how is the setup

I was thinking about giving the, their own tank when I free up some space.

It would be bare bottom
Ac20 with prefilter
No heater no light

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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I'd surely be grateful for some to start culturing. So long as they have oxygen and a bit to eat, a bottle is fine. But might want some air running in the bottle, so that water won't get stagnant.

They eat detritus so in that way they are good to have. Also good fish food. If you have huge numbers, especially if they are hanging at the water surface, it can mean low oxygen or very poor water conditions. But if just some are present, that's not bad. I actually find their swimming style entertaining, and they are very attractive to hungry fish, who are attracted to the movement too.

But many, me included, see them the first time and imagine they must be bad and get rid of them.. more to my sorrow when I learned what they truly were.

There is information online, just google Dero worm. They actually are said to culture very well if you mix them with daphnia and ramshorn or bladder snails. [ bladder snails are those small dark ones we hate to see that show up all the time ].

A bare bottom tank makes for easier cleaning overall. The snails produce waste, as do Dero worms. Their waste promotes bacterial and infusorial growth that feeds the daphnia, or so I have read. I'd think you might feed the odd algae tab for snails and Deros if there is no substrate for them to feed from.

Jackson might tell us how he cultures his ?

Dero worms are big now in guppy and Betta breeding circles as a subsitute for BBS, which are becoming too costly and sometimes in short supply. I am also obtaining some moina, which are easier to culture than daphnia proper, much smaller and thus useful for tiny fry and also work with the Dero worms combo.

Plus as feeders, they live in FW, so they don't die off like BBS if not eaten right away. Though long in length, they are very, very skinny, so many fry can take them. They cause no harm to fish or plants, & eat dead plant matter, so they can serve more than one purpose. And you can get them from labs, they're sold as live organisms to learn on for students, being much smaller and maybe less 'ick' factor than an earthworm, which is of the same type, an annelid. But Deros are one of the few in their family that are water dwellers.

Just can't seem to get them from labs in Canada.. only the US.. which makes the price prohibitive.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

Those of us who don't want them get them, those of us who do want them don't get them, damn Murphy


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Yep, can't ever discount the Murphy effect. 

So far as I know, they are very easy to keep, easier than many live food sources. Like their earthworm cousins, they are hermaphrodites, so even one can start a colony, but it would take awhile. 

Like other hermaphrodites, such as Ramshorn snails, they tend to prefer sexual reproduction if it's possible, as it is a survival advantage for them to exchange genetic material. They are able to reproduce fairly quickly, so that's an advantage for feeding purposes. And if they just show up, well, can't beat that price, can you ?

When I first saw them, I simply assumed they were not a good thing and siphoned out every one I saw and later changed the substrate in the tank to wash them out when I saw they seemed to prefer living in it. I was much too effective at ridding myself of them.

They can come in on plants, even in water that comes with fish. If they do, and anyone finds them undesirable, try to catch them, then find someone like me who does want them. 

If we could get a few cultures going and share them around, others would learn how great these little guys are and maybe there'd be a few resources to get new cultures of them. That American lab would have charged me about $13. for one tiny ball of worms in a tiny jar, plus shipping/handling, and I'd have been nailed for the taxes here too. Then I found out about that Fish&Wildlife inspection fee of nearly $200., all in US bucks.

So these things have value. They could be something to culture not only to feed one's own fish or fry, but also to sell for a bit of extra cash, like microworms often are.


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