AHHH WORMS IN MY WORMS!!!

[The endler guy]

I bought black worms today (I have before) and there where flat worm looking things in with them, I called the store and they said they are always in with the worms, but I’ve never seen them or anything that looks like them, I assume my lfs just didn’t understand me/ he is right, but I’m still a bit nervous. He said I could return them,  also how long can black worms survive in the bag?

[Odd Duck]

It looks like you have a mix of flatworms that are carnivorous planaria, rhabdicola, and some leaches thrown in for good measure.  Common hitchhiking in with blackworms.  Depending on the species of fish you’re keeping, planaria or leaches can be big problems or not problem at all.  Some fish will eat all those.  Some will only eat the blackworms then you have parasites to deal with.

For me, I would try to remove the leaches and planaria, for sure, then also try to remove the benign rhabdicola only because it can be so hard to tell them from planaria that could attack snails or fish and it’s not worth risking it.

You can put the whole mess in a plain bottom bowl (no pattern) and start sorting out the bad.  It can be very difficult to eliminate all parasites.  Feeding live blackworms always carries a risk of accidentally introducing parasites.

[The endler guy]

On 12/26/2022 at 3:37 PM, Odd Duck said:

It looks like you have a mix of flatworms that are carnivorous planaria, rhabdicola, and some leaches thrown in for good measure.  Common hitchhiking in with blackworms.  Depending on the species of fish you’re keeping, planaria or leaches can be big problems or not problem at all.  Some fish will eat all those.  Some will only eat the blackworms then you have parasites to deal with.

For me, I would try to remove the leaches and planaria, for sure, then also try to remove the benign rhabdicola only because it can be so hard to tell them from planaria that could attack snails or fish and it’s not worth risking it.

You can put the whole mess in a plain bottom bowl (no pattern) and start sorting out the bad.  It can be very difficult to eliminate all parasites.  Feeding live blackworms always carries a risk of accidentally introducing parasites.

Here is my stocking if it helps

 

Edited December 26, 2022 by Aiden Carter

[KittenFishMom]

To me, the ones with marking look like leeches and the white ones with arrow heads look like planaria. 

Put the bag in a wide bowl, try putting a bit of raw meat or high protein fish food a corner of the bag where that are not life forms and see if they head that way. 

Leeches walk like inchworms, or swim They also use the sucker on their big end to hold on, and stretch the other end out into the water to sniff for food.

Planaria slither like snails on a mucus trail. If you cut up a planaria, each piece grows replacement parts and becomes a whole new adult. Science is studying them.

[The endler guy]

On 12/26/2022 at 3:44 PM, KittenFishMom said:

To me, the ones with marking look like leeches and the white ones with arrow heads look like planaria. 

Put the bag in a wide bowl, try putting a bit of raw meat or high protein fish food a corner of the bag where that are not life forms and see if they head that way. 

Leeches walk like inchworms, or swim They also use the sucker on their big end to hold on, and stretch the other end out into the water to sniff for food.

Planaria slither like snails on a mucus trail. If you cut up a planaria, each piece grows replacement parts and becomes a whole new adult. Science is studying them.

I was fearing that they were planarians and leaches

I’ve already dealt with hydra (curse them) so I have no planaria and I really don’t need to lose fish due to them again

[The endler guy]

Update: I’m going to give the whole lot the “icy” treatment and disposing of them. No worth in returning them and don’t want to feed them

[KittenFishMom]

If you want to see if you already have these guys in your tank, you can try some of these. They don't catch all the leeches or planaria, but they catch enough to let you know if they are already active in your tank from other batches of black worms of snails or whatever. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L6HH6BF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093CCV6TK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You could also try the traps in your bag, but might end up catching black worms as well. I don't much about black worms other than you can not get them in the stores here.

 

 

 

 

[The endler guy]

On 12/26/2022 at 4:01 PM, KittenFishMom said:

If you want to see if you already have these guys in your tank, you can try some of these. They don't catch all the leeches or planaria, but they catch enough to let you know if they are already active in your tank from other batches of black worms of snails or whatever. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L6HH6BF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093CCV6TK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You could also try the traps in your bag, but might end up catching black worms as well. I don't much about black worms other than you can not get them in the stores here.

 

 

 

 

I am fairly certain I don’t have them (and if I do they aren’t in large enough populations to harm my fish or shrimp)

[Odd Duck]

On 12/26/2022 at 2:44 PM, Aiden Carter said:

Here is my stocking if it helps

 

There isn’t anything on that list that would reliably eat either planaria or leaches.

You can separate the parasites but you’ll have to do it over time and it’s very tedious.

[The endler guy]

On 12/27/2022 at 2:18 PM, Odd Duck said:

There isn’t anything on that list that would reliably eat either planaria or leaches.

You can separate the parasites but you’ll have to do it over time and it’s very tedious.

i just through the entire batch, it was only like a tablespoon 

[Liliana Araoz]

Usually blackworms come with leeches. Every time I buy some, I usually take them out of the bag and put them in a tupper, most times the leeches stay attached to the bag, then (and as they say above, it’s a tedious process), I move them around and with tweezers I take leeches out, you can also move them around and dump them in a second tupper, leeches will stay stuck to the walls, so I rinse it with water with aquarium salt added to nuke them. Then do it again, move worms around, dump them back to the first container, rinse leeches with salt water, and so on until you get rid of them all…. Now, planaria is a different issue and I wouldn’t know if with this process you’d get rid of them, because I’ve never found planaria in my blackworms before. BTW Thank you. New fear unlocked.

[The endler guy]

On 12/27/2022 at 11:55 PM, Liliana Araoz said:

Usually blackworms come with leeches. Every time I buy some, I usually take them out of the bag and put them in a tupper, most times the leeches stay attached to the bag, then (and as they say above, it’s a tedious process), I move them around and with tweezers I take leeches out, you can also move them around and dump them in a second tupper, leeches will stay stuck to the walls, so I rinse it with water with aquarium salt added to nuke them. Then do it again, move worms around, dump them back to the first container, rinse leeches with salt water, and so on until you get rid of them all…. Now, planaria is a different issue and I wouldn’t know if with this process you’d get rid of them, because I’ve never found planaria in my blackworms before. BTW Thank you. New fear unlocked.

This is the first time I’ve seen anything besides black worms in my black worms. And I usually use a syringe to get out the worms

[Liliana Araoz]

On 12/28/2022 at 6:59 AM, Aiden Carter said:

This is the first time I’ve seen anything besides black worms in my black worms. And I usually use a syringe to get out the worms

Huh, maybe your past sources had cleaned the leeches out… which is a blessing. Every single time I bought blackworms come with them friends LOL…. And you gotta take them out or they will kill your culture in no time, they make the water faulty and stinky in one day

[The endler guy]

On 12/28/2022 at 10:39 AM, Liliana Araoz said:

Huh, maybe your past sources had cleaned the leeches out… which is a blessing. Every single time I bought blackworms come with them friends LOL…. And you gotta take them out or they will kill your culture in no time, they make the water faulty and stinky in one day

probably not because I only ever have gotten them from the same lfs, this time it was just the dregs