long, red and slimy worms!

[Blurb]

found these curled up in the roots of a plant I was relocating. thought blood worms first when I saw their color but then they turned out to be very long, so nooo.... what do you think it is? Leeches or...???

 

[Fish Folk]

I'm not sure what those are . . .

Here's a good basic article on aquarium worms.

Of the things cited there, could these be camallanus worms? I've only heard of them protruding from a fish anus . . . not living large in the substrate.

If I had to just throw out a guess, I'd wonder out loud if they are live blood worms. I don't even know - can they live in your substrate? Maybe a variety of black worms?

Kind of Eeeeww! 🤮

[CT_]

my understanding is that bloodworms are fly larvae.  those look pretty long and depending on how long they've been in there you might be able to eliminate larvae vs worm at least.

[Brandy]

So, there is something called an aquatic earthworm. Also given where you found it, I would think it was unlikely a parasite. I do not think camallanus get anywhere near that big, nor do I think they hang out outside of fish for a long time. If they are leeches they typically will move in a weird way, sort of undulating to swim, like a snake might.

[Ryan W]

According to UKAPS, they are Tubifex. 

[Fish Folk]

^^^all of these answers...this is why this forum is awesome^^^

[Blurb]

yeah, but I haven't found The answer yet. Yes probably a hitchhiker tubifex, but could it be black worms? Just fed some BW I bought from the LFS and there are similarities but these are way bigger.  we are talking up to 16-17 cm ( 6-7 inch?). they don't really swim around, just crawl. Hmm.

[ccurtis]

How long have you had the plant? Was the plant planted in soil? Kind of looks like a young red worm, like the kind you get when you buy red worms for fishing. Just a thought but if you got this plant recently and it was grown immersed in dirt, it could be a worm from that.