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Worms / Parasites?
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Author:  Rusty86 [ Mar 31st, '17, 12:16 ]
Post subject:  Worms / Parasites?
Hello Peeps

Today when i was stirring up the bottom of the fish tank to help the pump suck up some of the fish poop in the corners i found this little critter.

I assume its some sort of parasite? Anyone know what it is and if i need to do something about it?

its about 8-10mm long... squashed it n red stuff came out of it (assume its blood from the fish?)

No idea of how many are in there... will have to have a good look now I've seen them and try catch a fish or two and see if they're attached to them!

Cheers
Rusty

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Author:  scotty435 [ Mar 31st, '17, 15:01 ]
Post subject:  Re: Worms / Parasites?
Nothing to worry about, normal biota of shallow pond bottoms, I'm pretty sure that's a bloodworm in this case a chironomid. They often live in pond sediments or on rocks and use something similar to our hemoglobin to help them acquire oxygen so you're not seeing fish blood and fish actually love to eat these. At one point in their lives (when they are larvae like yours) they live in tubes that they build of various materials like sand. Eventually they mature into midges which resemble mosquitos. This will give you a better description and some nice photographs -

http://www.abundantnature.com/2013_02_01_archive.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chironomidae

You'll see the midges flying around your system later on :thumbright:
Author:  Rusty86 [ Mar 31st, '17, 15:39 ]
Post subject:  Re: Worms / Parasites?
Legend!

Started off pretty badly and learnt what NOT to do quite quickly as a result of some poor advice.. Finally looks like things are starting to settle down after nearly 6-8 months battling with it, at least its kept me amused!

Glad these little critters weren't my next battle!

Cheers Scotty

Slowly getting my head around this AP stuff :P
Author:  scotty435 [ Mar 31st, '17, 16:01 ]
Post subject:  Re: Worms / Parasites?
Glad to hear you're getting things figured out with your system :thumbright: .

Yeah, it takes awhile, I've been at it for years and I'm still learning new things. Midge is kind of a non specific term so you might see other types of flies referred to like this.

Another common fly larvae found in AP systems are Black Flies - Members of the Family Simulidae - they like fast flowing water and you'll often see them attached to the pipes in AP - they're related to the Chironomids and some other types of flies. Here's a pic I found out online - http://bugmugs.org/2012/04/blackfly/

They often look quite different than that photo, kind of look like a tube and you'll only see a portion of them sticking out like little tentacles - that's probably the pupal stage of the black fly. I'm not sure if it's really a tube or just the way they look :dontknow:

Have a look around and I bet you'll find some Black Fly larvae.

Cheers
Author:  Rusty86 [ Mar 31st, '17, 16:20 ]
Post subject:  Re: Worms / Parasites?
Yep - they were there a while ago but disappeared - they were hanging around the drain pipes!
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