Bloodworms Questions

[judcoynehunter]

they are weird but are easyily caught by new comers to the hobby lol

 

[lucky62]

here is the picture

those look like either black worms or tubifex worms [look like real small earth worms ], and will not turn into anything else .
They really wont hurt anything as long as you keep up with good tank maintainance [in my experience].
I use my python clean and fill to thin the populations that become estamblished in my tanks , if the fish don't dig them out .
Blood worms are an insect larva that will transform [ into it's adult form ], but are usually eaten by fish long before that happens .
Live blood worms will stay near the surface [ in my experience ] , and not burrow into the substrate , as your worms seem to have done .

planaria are usually much smaller , and are a whitish color . I used to tear down my tanks in my younger days to get rid of them [ 20 + years ago ], but it seems I've always had them , and always will , if I look hard enough . I just keep up on weekly water changes , and my fish are fine .

Good luck .

 

[Smithvio]

Okay now i'm hesistant to get rid of them now. If they are tubifex worms, which they look like in the pictures I saw.. they are beneficial. It says: "Tubifex worms are the decomposers in this habitat. This means that they eat the waste and dead material in the pond." Should I kill my worms anyways? ::Has bottle of Mardel's coppersafe in hand::

 

[Smithvio]

Oh, I forgot to mention that besides the bottle of copper stuff to kill the worms I also bought a bottle of Waste control, organic waste elimiator... If the worms are beneficial i don't want to kill them so should i use the waste control... would that thin out the population instead of killing em all out?

 

[amazingbioloboydp]

IMO i wouldnt but thats also cuz they look cool and from what ive researched it doesnt say nething is wrong with keeping em so thats whatg i would do.its the circle of life

 

[Smithvio]

Whats weird is how did i even get these worms in the first place?!?! If they are tubifex worms... How!!

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Smithvio

Stop!!!! Don't use chemicals to kill those worms. The are causing no harm and can be easily removed by worm eating fish and/or vacuuming.

Never add chemicals like that to your tank except as a last resort.

 

[Michael Roth]

exactly. medicating should not be the first approach. suck away, if you can't house a bottom feeder with a hearty appetite. Besides, if you kill em all, you still have to clean your gravel, or their corpses will poison your tank.

 

[modernhamlet]

What inchworm said.

Seriously.

 

[Smithvio]

Phew, thanks for the help. I guess i won't kill them (But there are literally hundreds! they control the substrate, i'll just call them the substrate people from now on!). But should i use my Waste control juice anyways? Turtle poo is huuuuuuge and it doesn't seem to be breaking down well, I also got a lot of organic stuff. Should i use it or let the worms pick at it?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Smithvio

Tell me about your tank. How big is it and what is in there, please.

 

[Smithvio]

Its a 20 gallon tank and includes 6 guppies/6 long-tailed blue danios, 1 pleco, bamboo shrimp, a mississippi map turtle, and about 8 live plants.

 

[lucky62]

You may want go a few days without feeding your fish too . This will make the fish look for food , like they would naturally do .
It may also cause the worms to come up and look for food , only to become food .


You could go alot longer without feeding your fish then you may think .[ your turtle might eat the fish ]
And I too believe chemicals are a last resort .

What is a Map turtle ? You may want to get this guy his own place in the sun . Just a suggestion .

 

[Inchworm]

...What is a Map turtle ?

Hi Smithvio

I was wondering the same thing. And how big is it?

 

[lucky62]

Whats weird is how did i even get these worms in the first place?!?! If they are tubifex worms... How!!

When you bought what you said were blood worms , How were they packaged ?

Blood worms have a kind of swimming movement through the water [ ever see mosquito larva ], and stay near the suface. [and are not actually a worm ].

Tubifex and black worms just sink and wiggle , or wiggle as they sink to the bottem.