White Wiggly Thing?

[AlitaConejita]

When I went to feed my ADFs/ghost shrimp last night, I saw this small white thing wriggling in the water. It was NOT at the surface but midway down the 5 gal tank. It was about half an inch long (1 1/2ish cm) and thinner than a strand of Java moss. It was positioned vertically (the longest part was top to bottom - not side to side). It was wiggling vigorously so it was easy to tell it was moving itself and not something floating in the filter current. I tried to take a pic but my phone camera wasn't able to focus on it

What could it be?

The tank has ADFs and Ghost shrimp. When I added more java mods a few weeks ago, there were a few white squishy balls in it that I noticed when I was rinsing it to go in the tank. I asked the pet shop about those and they said they were probably killifish eggs or snail eggs and either way the ADFs would eat them if I missed a few.

The white wriggly thing was the same thickness all-over so I don't think it was a killifish fry.

 

[KirkyArcher]

could be a naiadidae worm or detritus worm
do a image search on these two and see if they look similar to the ones you are witnessing.

 

[AlitaConejita]

Looks like some of the pics of the detritus worm on google.

I stopped using a gravel vac in that tank at the same time I introduced the additional java moss because I added a few ghost shrimp and I was afraid of accidentally vacuuming one of them with the gravel vac.

I am moving the inhabitants to a different tank soon. What should I do during the transfer if the wriggly white thing is a detritus worm?

 

[AlitaConejita]

Incidentally, I only saw one and I searched the tank (visually) for a quarter of an hour after I lost sight of it to see if I could find it again. Most of the online posts I saw talk about a whole lot of them.

 

[KirkyArcher]

No need to do anything, quite harmless and usually become fish food, good housekeeping inc vacuuming will prevent them in future along with reducing amount of food you are giving your fish

 

[AlitaConejita]

Is it ok to vacuum with shrimp?

 

[KirkyArcher]

Yes, just try and avoid them, if you're using a syphon type vacuum without a  baffle worst that can happen is they get a free ride along the pipe and into a bucket, battery type vacuums usually are fitted with a baffle to prevent livestock getting minced in the impeller housing

 

[AlitaConejita]

Thanks ... No battery, just self priming.