User deleted post
What are these red worms on my new plants from Etsy? (Photos in comments)
Question/HelpIf you have an outbreak, they can be free swimming in the water like that. I've had to treat for them before and they were everywhere in the water. Those could be detritus worms, but they're usually more white/ brown than red. I'd rinse very well and treat the plant with some hydrogen peroxide, instructions are online.
nothing to worry about! likely just detritus worms. they're more brown than red here, and in the cup they look red at the edges but transparent as they swim through the middle at the end of the clip.
my fishtank has a huge amount of them because of leaflitter & a lack of snails/shrimp to cleanup pellet food, these guys do the job. they free swim just like this when the tank is knocked or I do work in it & come in a variety of colours from clear to white to brown. camallanus worms are distinctly red.
always do a peroxide dip with new plants anyway though. it's good practice. there could be plenty you can't see, too
Will peroxide hurt my Val’s?
if this is what you mean, YMMV. mixed ideas here
I've never had it harm any plants but I don't use too high a concentration. I don't have this plant tho, just more rigid ones like floating plants or ferns/swords/lotus
I also see nothing to indicate these are leeches
I don't think these are camellanus worms. Camellanus worms like to bury in the substrate when they're not actively in a host... not in plants. These look like detritus worms
Lots of panic here, but I think they are harmless. Probably "detritus worms" of some sort.
https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/10-13-2-detritus-worms/.
Did you get a refund
They look a little like tubifex worms, which are good to feed your fish if you have any
Yes, its close relatives - Aulophorus worms. Unlike the tubifex, they love to swim around the aquarium, which quickly leads them to a sad end...
Yikes, they look like this!!!
Just a heads up - while OP's worms do indeed look like camallanus, the worms in the above picture are not camallanus. Camallanus worms are not segmented and are usually longer (like OP's worms). Some sources erroneously post pictures of short segmented worms, but these are usually larvae of some type.
I’ve got experience with these worms, though I’ve only ever seen them poking out of my fish, this was my first thought when I saw them.
How did you get rid of them? I only find incompatible medicine due to having shrimps in my tank aswell 🥲
It was several years ago, but it took me a couple different meds. And I haven’t had to treat a tank with shrimps in it thus far, so I’m not much help, sorry 😢
I was able to treat with a medicated flake food from Angels Plus containing levamisole. I'm not if you can feed it to a tank with shrimp, but you could always try treating the fish in a hospital tank
I've been using praziquantel with no ill effect on my shrimp or snails.
I have a guide to it. Look in the comments on here https://youtube.com/shorts/_L0TEekn68I?si=9l_SpzcSVbc0Uyq2
Be sure to pick them up and check the tank constantly when you follow
They don't even look like that!
They really don’t though.
I’ve dealt with camallanus before. They don’t swim.
Concerning how they're swimming like that... likely a parasite.
Where do you get your info? Why do you think that? If they are moving, they are probably harmless. Pathogenic worms such as capillaria and camallanus are usually only found alive in the fish. If they are outside a fish, they are probably dead or paralyzed by meds.
Yeap. Сompletely harmless. And on the contrary - popular aquaculture of live food (fed with oat flour and grated carrots). Because of the way they swim, in my country they are called "water snakes."
I haven't done a water change in 6 tanks in 7 years.
In your country worms are called water snakes? Good to know.
Yeah, it's funny. Considering that we have plenty of aquatic snakes too... The scientific name of our most common species is Aulophorus furcatus.
I raise them for food for my puffers they don't swim like that. I don't know what species this is but it's not aulophorus.
I guess maybe if you put an irritant in the water like alcohol for a vid it's possible but why would you do that?
From death. Where did you think it came from?
Paludarium will be up in 6mo. I'll post pics for you, love.
These look like tubifex worms, edible by fish. There is parasite that looks similar. They are called camallanus worms. These stick out from fish anus and make fish loose apettite and get skinny as they feed on fish's blood. i found out these parasites come with blood worms in either live or frozen form. Fed frozen blood worms to test it out and thats how parasites appeared. When they stick out from fish bottoms, that's an adult size and ready to drop eggs so you need to act quick.
i used phenbendazole mixing in the food and levamisole, either one works. i did 3 days treatment. Follow instructions as over dosing may kill fish. Mixing in food makes it more effective, in my opinion. Treatment was a success. Will repeat in 1 month again.
After fish poop, you must vacuum the bottom of the tank thoroughly . Also remove gravel, as eggs may stay in gravel and infestate fish again. No commercial aquarium medication worked for me but 2 I listed above.
Some kind of Aulophorus worms - high-value live food for fish.
Fish food 😁
Looks like Camallanus worms and those are not good for your fish 😨 Dealt with them before and they’re a nightmare
How are they not tubifex? It's hard to tell from this footage, but tubifex would be more like it?
I think they wouldn’t be chilling in the plants unless the plants were decaying since they’re not at all parasitic. Camallanus can be spread through plants or live fish.
They definitely don't look like detrus worms to me. They sort of look like Blackworms to me, but while I'm not extremely familiar with black worms, I don't know if I've ever seen them swim like that...
They look like black Worms to me. I've been trying to buy those but they've been out all across the country (I heard). I have to buy frozen blood worms now for my 8" featherfin catfish. She prefers the live ones!
When it comes to the US i believe all live Blackworms are sourced from 2 mass production farms in California, and I believe they had an issue where a heat streak dried out their breeding pools or something resulting in temporarily being very hard to source. I believe they are plenty available in the US now though throughout the web. Try searching California blackworms. Or you could be thrifty like me and explore temporary spring vernal pools and take samples to try to collect some from the wild to start a culture (depending on where you live).
here is a video of young blackworms you can see them at about 20 seconds into the video, then fast forward to like 7m 15sec and see what they look like with just a few in a bowl like yours. They look just like it. I googled the asian leech one and your look too small and shaped differently to be that. I would definitely go with blackworms. The guy in the video says they don't reproduce super fast at all because they don't sexually or asexually reproduce. They break apart and regenerate he says. He cultures them feeds them to be fish food.
Free fish food! If you could culture them you could have free food from now on
https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/10-12-1-camallanus/ I used the method on this website to treat my fish with Camallanus and its never returned.
They are protentially detritus worms, which are a good addition to any tank to break down fallen matter, and they're a good source of protein for fish.
No idea why you're being downvoted for your very correct answer. These are obviously not camallanus worms since they're free swimming and not sticking out of a fish.
Downvoted for what is most likely a correct answer. Gotta love Reddit.
Aren’t detritus worms smaller and white? I have those and they don’t look like this. Or are there other species?
The come in a wide range of colours.
Oh interesting! I’ve only seen them as tiny white squiggles stuck to the top of the glass above the waterline. Love to push them down and watch my beta enjoy a nice snack. 😊
the ones in the video aren't red, they're white/transparent. you can see it as one from the edge of the cup swims through the middle
they look brown in the follow up pictures OP posted because they're full of, well, detritus. I have a huge buildup of these in my fishtank because I use leaflitter & pellet foods, you can see them free swim just like this if I knock the tank. they can get pretty long
Looks like detritus worms to me too
I don't know! I only buy tube plants from petco because of that!! I am sorry! I hope it works out.
Feed them to guppies
So what you're saying is you intentionally disturbed and agitated them to make this video. Do you boo. But don't try to use me as media. You will fail.
They look parasites to me, but I could be wrong. If they aren't parasites, could please someone comment what it is?
I'm recently dealing with camallanus (wriggling red worm). I bought fish from a well known fish store and plants from a chain so I think one of the two locations had infected and killed off most of my guppies in one tank. These look like them but being my first time dealing with them, I hope for OP they're not. Seriously bad guy to get as it involves multiple treatment sessions.
I certainly wouldn't take that chance if I were OP having to go through it now. There's two types of treatment for this parasite and they are both done differently so make sure you read up.
As far as I know, camallanus are smaller and shorter, aren't they? I think those worms look too big to be camallanus, but I could be wrong.
I should have shown the guppy I had. Several red long worms protruding from the torn anus. I had to put her down as I caught it too late. Treating tanks now.
That’s what I was thinking too.
I can't get the meds where I am but my lfs helped me out and are amazing ppl. I was given some liquid levamisole they use in their store tanks. Here's to it working.
I think you’re right.
It is just because I have seen something similar before and had a hitch that could be parasites, but didn’t want to affirm anything.
I had never seen them before in real life, only detritus works and horsehair parasites. But any potential parasites freak me the hell out! Interesting, but nasty little buggers.
Same
Spooky it makes me sketched on doing live plants because of all the horror stories I've heard. A couple million snails I can deal with but parasites and everything thing else that could murder off and infect my tank is a no go for me
I've only ever gotten pest snails, and you could always do some riparium type things if you're worried about aquatic pests. In my experience it's a lot easier to find clean pothos cuttings and other houseplants than it is to find healthy aquatic plants. Living in Alaska does change things though
Snails don't bug me they're a given. I'm more worried about introducing something I don't want, mostly of the parasitic variety. I'm about to start a 40g breeder, and I'm doing live plants for the first time. I won't be doing my normal fish in-cycle for this reason. I'm curious if you don't mind me picking your brain or anyone else who sees this comment can you bomb a planted tank for parasites and other organisms without killing off the plants accidentally and what would be the recommended product for this or what would be away to safe guard against it happening?
Many people dip the plants before introduction to the tank. I'm not entirely sure what they use, but that would be the best practice to prevent parasites introduced by plants. Here's a guide I found that seems like it would be helpful.
User deleted comment
16d
I googled those leeches and I don’t think it’s that. These worms that I have on these plants are very small and very thin, like a piece of hair, and they aren’t very long
I've never had to deal with parasites but am I crazy for assuming that removing all the fish/filter media and slowly (to stop the glass breaking) bringing the water to a rolling boil for an hour is a good option?
How would you boil a tank lol
A portable electric immersion water heater would do it pretty easily, $4 on amazon. Genuine question, it sounds mad but would it work?
Nah i hear you. Interesting theory, obviously without fish/plants and filter media like you said i feel like it could work for some parasites that cant take the heat- i wonder if anyone has tried this 🤔
That would be an alright option, but I'd be hesitant because of the extra risk of the glass breaking. I'd probably deconstruct as you said, then dip the plants and boil the substrate in a metal container and rinse thoroughly. Just seems like boiling in the tank is unnecessarily risky, especially with ones that have plastic bracing.
I don't think you find camallanus worms free swimming in the water like that in such quantities. I'm leaning towards harmless