An ID challenge!

[Bunny13]

On my nightly check of the tanks I notice there are these worms in the 20 gallon. Right now it only houses a crayfish but before the move it also had a bunch of feeder guppies in it. They seem to be sprouting from the gravel. I actually just moved some of this gravel to a 5 gallon tank I am setting up as a nano and I didn't notice any worms when I moved it and I don't see any in the 5g now. Since I do feed live black worms its possible they survived but I haven't fed any to this tank is almost a year since I set up the 30gallon. This is also the tank I had to treat for the parasitic worms a couple years ago but since I haven't seen any signs of the worms on the guppies that were in there I doubt it is the parasitic worms again. What are your thoughts? Here are some pics:

"growing" in the tank:


A close up of the mystery worms:


A comparison of my blackworms from the fridge and the worms from the tank:


Ugh...I still hate worms...

[joephys]

Maybe they hitchhiked on some plants or something. No idea on what they are, but I don't think they are black worms.

[Sylvia]

They actually kind of look the same, even though the mystery worms are smaller. They both look segmented.

[Bunny13]

I haven't had any plants in the tank for months because the crayfish just digs them up. (she is very particular about the design of her tank.) I'm thinking maybe I will throw some guppies in there and see if they eat the worms.

[Roan]

Those are blackworms.

I see them in my spawning tanks after I remove the adults. I feed live to encourage spawning and some always end up living in the substrate.

Roan

[Bunny13]

cool. I've created my own little black worm farm. lol Do they eat anything specific or just left over food?

[Roan]

Originally Posted by Bunny13

cool. I've created my own little black worm farm. lol Do they eat anything specific or just left over food?

I suspect they eat leftover food, 'cause I never fed them. I tried to get rid of them a few times and it took a week of double-dosing Fluke Tabs and heavy vacuuming before I saw the last of them.

Adult bows are one thing, they'll eat them, but I don't want to hatch eggs out in a tank full of them.

They're kinda neat the way they stick out of the substrate, aren't they?

Roan

[Trixie]

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
Guess I'll go eat worms,
Long, thin, slimy ones; Short, fat, juicy ones,
Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.
Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm.
Up comes the first one, up comes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm.

[Bunny13]

Trixie...just send me an address and you can eat as much as you want!

Roan, they remind me of those salt water eels that look like sea grass and sway with it just waiting for dinner.

[rosita]

Eeeeuuuuwwwww. Worms squishing between one's toes on the sidewalk after a good rain . . .. the smell of those worms in the post-falling sky . .. . . think I'll stick to frozen bloodworms. Gimme a snake any day!!!

[Roan]

Originally Posted by Trixie

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
Guess I'll go eat worms,
Long, thin, slimy ones; Short, fat, juicy ones,
Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.
Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm.
Up comes the first one, up comes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm.

The first one was easy
The second one was harder
The third one got caught in my throat!

Long, thin, slimy ones; Short, fat, juicy ones,
Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.

YUM! YUM!

[Trixie]