Weird red possible parasitic worm

[Bettaguy08]

I just found this weird looking red worm in my aquarium and have no clue what it is or where it came from

 

[Guyb93]

That’s strange enit , I’m no biologist but I’d guess it’s too large to be a parasite looks like some mad earth worm or something to me how big is it roughly looks a good few inch

 

[Bettaguy08]

That’s strange enit , I’m no biologist but I’d guess it’s too large to be a parasite looks like some mad earth worm or something to me how big is it roughly looks a good few inch

Will it effect my aquarium negatively? I wouldn’t think so if it’s just a normal worm.

 

[Guyb93]

I wouldn’t of thought so either to be fair I’m just curious as to how it’s got there , I would assume it’s going to be eaten but I’d probably get rid of it anyways , I’d be be so puzzled but just it’s shear size would make me think it’s not parasitic but could be so wrong

 

[Bettaguy08]

I wouldn’t of thought so either to be fair I’m just curious as to how it’s got there , I would assume it’s going to be eaten but I’d probably get rid of it anyways , I’d be be so puzzled but just it’s shear size would make me think it’s not parasitic but could be so wrong

I removed the worm and it didn’t have a round body like i thought, it had a flat body, I don’t know if that makes any difference in identifying what type of worm it is

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Can't really tell from the pic, but with a flat body I'd guess a planaria or some sort of tapeworm. Was it segmented? It appears that one end is stuck to the aquarium wall?

i usually leave mystery inverts in my tank--I think they add some interest, and biodiversity is generally a good thing. It might just be a detritus worm, but those are usually whiteish. If it were my tank, I'd probably have gotten rid of this one...something about it doesn't look right, somehow.

 

[Bettaguy08]

Can't really tell from the pic, but with a flat body I'd guess a planaria or some sort of tapeworm. Was it segmented? It appears that one end is stuck to the aquarium wall?

i usually leave mystery inverts in my tank--I think they add some interest, and biodiversity is generally a good thing. It might just be a detritus worm, but those are usually whiteish. If it were my tank, I'd probably have gotten rid of this one...something about it doesn't look right, somehow.

It was going moving on the wall very slowly but tried getting off the wall and going in the substrate, I was thinking it might be a camallanus worm but aren’t those way smaller? Here is a picture with worms that look similar to the one I had when I took the worm out of the tank, it kind of just shriveled up like the one in this photo I found.

 

[Colin_T]

Probably just an aquatic worm.

It's not camallanus or a tapeworm so nothing to worry about there.
Camallanus only grow to about 10mm long
Tapeworm are usually white or cream and have noticeable segments that are evenly spaced along the worm.

 

[Lynnzer]

You'll probably never find out for sure. I accidentally added what I thought was a small worm into my tank for my Dwarf Neon Tetras to eat. As soon as it hit the water, it flattened out and I could see right away it was a leech. It went straight into the substrate and I've never seen it since, nor have any fish shown signs of predation.

 

[Bettaguy08]

Probably just an aquatic worm.

It's not camallanus or a tapeworm so nothing to worry about there.
Camallanus only grow to about 10mm long
Tapeworm are usually white or cream and have noticeable segments that are evenly spaced along the worm.

Okay thanks