# worms found in moss ball



## graybot

Just dropped a new marimo algae ball into my aquarium, and I see many small worms (they look like shell-less snails, really) crawling around on the outside.

I just took the ball out again and isolated it. I didn't see any of the worms reach the substrate. Here's a video, is there anything to worry about here? Should I bleach the ball, or will my shrimp and corys eat these?


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## holly12

Ahhh! *That actually made me shudder*..... could they be planaria? Planaria - Google Search (Are they flat?) Planaria are harmless flatworms. You can see their tiny crossed eyes and a circular stomach area in their middle. Here's a vid: YouTube - ‪Planaria‬‏ (We studied them in grade 7). I'm assuming your fish will eat them: Is there a fish that eats planaria? Paradise fish will eat them, (so says this site). (I've got tons of miniscule worms and mites in my substrate that crawl on my moss balls and snails - they don't hurt anything).

Planaria will breed both sexually and asexually. (They can split in half and form a new worm). If you cut them into little pieces, each piece will form a new worm, as long as you don't cut the stomach. (Fascinating little critters actually).

If you find they did get off the moss and into the tank, try vacuuming the gravel and doing some water changes... it should get rid of them.


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## graybot

They are pretty flat. They look pretty similar to that video. They travel like a slug or snail, oozing by. I saw at least one in my gravel after removing the ball. I read that planaria thrive in overfed tanks... mine is pretty clean and I feed sparingly, so hopefully they won't get out of control.


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## Auban

they look and move like very large planaria worms. some planarias can cause problems, but i dont have the slightest clue what species that is. planarias have a smooth body with a head that flares out slightly, often making a flat triangle. some species can get to be several centimeters long, and they often live in water. if it has a segmented body, it could be a leech. i dont really know of any slugs that live in freshwater, but if it were a small slug, you would see eystalks. if it does turn out to be planaria worms, it could be harmful and cause problems, but most of the ones (especialy the big ones) that end up in our fish tanks dont cause problems. the larger ones usualy eat algae and bacterial slime and the small ones eat stuff that can only be seen with a high powered microscope. on a side note, if those are planaria worms, they are a beautiful representation of the genus, one of the things i would keep and culture. (i should have been a biologist...)


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## holly12

In grade 7 we had to get into pairs. Each pair got a planaria and we had to cut it in half. We each got to take a half home. I kept mine in a small tupperware container, with saran over the top (holes punched for air), and every few days I would give it a tiny piece of thawed ground beef. It lasted for a long time, and even split and then I had 2. One day though, they were just gone. Maybe they escaped, maybe they died and turned clear, I never found out. Very fascinating little buggers! If you split the head between the eyes, it will grow into 2 heads, if you split the tail, it will grow 2 tails, if you split it in half, it will become 2 worms. But, if you cut the stomach it kills it. (If you split it into 2, the half with no stomach will grow a stomach). Really weird!


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## Auban

... just a few of the resons why i love planarias  i used to culture some in florida that were over an inch long and had a half moon shaped head. i could propogate them by division, but i never saw them split on thier own. i have no idea where they came from, i just found one in a puddle one day and spent weeks trying to figure out what it was until i saw a picture in a biology text book of what looked similar to what i had. i think i was in second grade... i was a wierd kid.


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## holly12

Lol, not weird, cool! Biology is awesome! (If you were in grade 2, how did you know you could split them? You weren't one of those creepy kids experimenting on animals were you? Lol). And, what grade 2 student looks up a worm in a biology text book?! You must be a smarty pants indeed! (I love biology text books!) I took 2 years of nursing and LOVE looking through the text books!


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## Auban

actualy, i was on a medication when i was little that interfered with my ability to learn, so i didnt learn to recite the alphabet until the end of first grade(i couldnt even count to ten). after the health issue cleared up, got off the meds, my memory started returning to normal, wich was right at the beginning of first grade. i took off like a rocket, and learned to read in just a few months. by the end of second grade, when i found the worm, i had been reading aquarium and reptile magazines. a biology textbook wasnt much of a jump. oh, and i learned about splitting them from the textbook. it had a dichotomous key(love those things) which is what i used to determine it was a flat worm, as opposed to any other.


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## holly12

Wow. Reptile and fish magazines in grade 2! That's amazing!


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## Auban

yeah, totaly realized we just hijacked this thread... anyway, they do look like planaria, no, they probably wont harm your fish, and the only real way to be rid of them is to remove thier food source. most of them eat detritus and bacterial films, so uneaten food has to get cleaned. since yours came in with the moss balls, thats probably where thier food is. i would try rinsing the moss balls several times in clean water to try to remove anything that might have built up in them. i wouldnt bleach the moss ball unless you are willing to kill it off comepletely, as bleach will quickly destroy algae.


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## graybot

I rinsed it pretty heavily in a glass of tap water, and squeezed out all the gunk built up inside. After a few rinse and repeats it looks like that manually removed most if not all of the worms. I doubt the stragglers will live long, or at least I shouldn't see a population explosion, it's an invert/cory tank that stays pretty clean. The 18 shrimp and all the snails keep the substrate nearly spotless when it comes to leftover food.


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## Auban

they will probably just disappear on thier own. my question is, why dont I ever get awesome red planaria-covered moss balls? gonna have to talk with the local fish store about that... lol


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## holly12

Sounds like you probably got rid of them. (Let us know if the come back - it would be interesting to know if they are tough little buggers in that respect or not).


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## bolram

Thats the first time ive seen these things. They look weirdly cool lol, why couldnt my moss ball have had some haha


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## Muttpuppy

Yuck. I found one in my ball the other day. Only found it because I had it in a glass to observe before adding it to the tank (I had found a snail). I had been apprehensive about adding bleach to it, but after that worm, I did it anyway. I've been changing the water twice a day. I tried ripping the worm out of the ball, but only got half (which I now know means it could still be inside). I fed the worm to the goldfish and she gobbled it right up. I still haven't added the ball into the tank yet, but the bleach (a quick dose) has not killed the ball.


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