Found These Red Worms In My Substrate

[lljdma06]

I am in the process of relaxing to a beer while switching out my substrate in my 8g to this nice sand that I have. While digging through my gravel, I found these worms that are reddish and look like tiny earth worms. They are about 1-2cm, depending on the specimen and between 1-2mm thick. Kind of neat, and I managed to save quite a few of them by putting a tiny amount of gravel and water in a cup and scooping up specimens with my plant tongs. I'm wondering if they would be nice additions to the sand substrate to air it out? They appear like some type of nematode to me. I've seen them on occasion when I'm planting around in my 8g and I think they originally hitched a ride on some lobelia cardinalis. They've not been harmful, though I'm not taking any chances and they will not go into the breeder.

llj

PS: I'll post pictures once I can pause to take them. Cool stuff. They appear like some type of nematode to me. I've seen them on occasion

 

[~T~]

I am in the process of relaxing to a beer while switching out my substrate in my 8g to this nice sand that I have. While digging through my gravel, I found these worms that are reddish and look like tiny earth worms. They are about 1-2cm, depending on the specimen and between 1-2mm thick. Kind of neat, and I managed to save quite a few of them by putting a tiny amount of gravel and water in a cup and scooping up specimens with my plant tongs. I'm wondering if they would be nice additions to the sand substrate to air it out? They appear like some type of nematode to me. I've seen them on occasion when I'm planting around in my 8g and I think they originally hitched a ride on some lobelia cardinalis. They've not been harmful, though I'm not taking any chances and they will not go into the breeder.

llj

PS: I'll post pictures once I can pause to take them. Cool stuff. They appear like some type of nematode to me. I've seen them on occasion

Are they flatworms? I had tons of them in my 8gal shrimp tank and they could actually catch and kill small shrimp.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

My first thought was tubifex worms. Do they stick their tails/head out of the substrate and wave it around? You can find pictures easily with a google search.

If not, I'm not sure what it could be.

 

[Wolfenrook]

Could be freshwater worms if they look segmented.

Ade