# Worms invade!!!



## syble (Mar 20, 2007)

Apparently I cannot use photobucket anymore, it won't upload my files since it chaged interfaces so this will be harder to explain...

There are these little white worms in my tanks... started out as only seeing the odd small one , then i could see them breaking down old frogs poop, now their everywhere! :shock: The real shock came from finding them in one of my springtail cultures... it went from a thriving springtail culture to seething with these worms... now the springs are all clustered against the wall unmoving, and it stinks! :| the thing that strikes me as strange is that particular culture is a tightly shut deli cup that for months hasn't had any worms in it and nothing but food gets introduced... BUT... On the weekend, I put it in the QT that the leucs in... it's just a critter keeper that has papertowel in it.. no dirt, no plants... a few days later its got an infestation.... whats going on?
Thanks
sib


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## bellerophon (Sep 18, 2006)

grindal worms


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

Yes, definitely grindal worms. Have fish or small caudates? They love grindal worms.


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## syble (Mar 20, 2007)

Are they something i need to worry about? I look in the springtail culture this morning. I can't find any and the springtails are behaving normally again... Should I just scrap that culture?
Thanks
Sib


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

They are exploiting a food source in the springtail culture- what are you feeding your springtails?


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

tadpoles love to eat them.


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## chibisan (Apr 4, 2008)

are these the same type of worms as what can appear in fish tanks when there is too much food waste?


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## MzFroggie (Mar 22, 2008)

OMG I was just about to freak out.I have found these same worms in the petri dish.What was the outcome? Do I need to get rid of them or what?Should I be concerned??Thanks in advance!!


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## Jer (Feb 9, 2008)

Nasty.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

I am not 100% convinced that they are really grindal worms (_Enchytraeus buchholzi_)... I suspect that they are simply a type of soil nematode. 
In some cases there are anecdotal reports of people having had soil nematodes appear to predate on eggs but these eggs may have either been bad to begin with or die before feeding by the nematodes started. They are ubiquitous in virtually all enclosures that contain plants or materials collected from outside and in theory could be transfered even from the frogs themselves (larva may have been on the frogs accidently). 

They are not the same as the white worm seen in aquaria when there is a high bioload, overfeeding or insufficient water changes as those are typically a freeliving flatworm. 

Ed


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