# get rid of nemerteans without restarting viv?



## goku (Nov 11, 2009)

Hi!

So it happens that I have a real infestation of nemertians in my mantella set, I can take dozens out every day and makes no difference. I know that they are not supposed to harm the frogs, but this is too much, not a single fly lasts to the next day!
I could take the frogs out, this is no problem, because anyway in this viv it's impossible to find any clutch, wich I suspect they've done in some moment.
The problem is that in this viv I have a very nice moss grow, it took a year and a half to get like this and I don't want to loose it. Also, I would like to use it in the future for some retics, but with the nemerteans, there is no chance 
I read something about letting some ice in water inside for some hours..it's this not gonna kill the plants as well? what do you think about it?
also, I thought about letting the tank empty for some months..if I don't feed anything inside, the worms should die as well or?

Thanks!


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

A lot of different things have been tried to get rid of nemertean infections in set-up enclosures. So far I am not aware of a single one that has worked. 

Ed


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## bobzarry (Mar 2, 2005)

I read of a guy having limited success using Oniscus asellus (common European wood louse). It seems the wood louse will consume the very young and eggs. If you also destroy any adults you find it could at least help keep populations in check.

Note that once you have nemerteans in one viv it will usually spread to all vivs in your collection.
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## goku (Nov 11, 2009)

In some other viv I controlled the population by changing the hole substrate, I still have in there but the thing it's under control. I have added also the wood louses time ago, but I am not sure about if it's helping..I think that the fact that was helping more, it's removing the soil..but here I cannot do it.
I also don't have them in all my vivs, if you don't change plants in between them, or you don't have a shared draining, they can't go from one viv to another.
But how about the dry ice? would that kill the plants? and, in theory, if I don't add any little bug inside for several months, they should all die because they will have nothing to eat..shouldn't it be like that?

thanks for helping!


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## bobzarry (Mar 2, 2005)

Your tank in all likelihood will have enough to feed them for a very long time to come. In fact they will even predate on each other. Dry ice will not work as these things are well equiped by nature to live in low oxygen envirements. They will just dig deeper into the substrate and you will probably damage plants and pretty much anything else living in your tank before getting rid of them.

If in your search you find anything that will help.. please keep us updated.


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## goku (Nov 11, 2009)

bobzarry said:


> Your tank in all likelihood will have enough to feed them for a very long time to come. In fact they will even predate on each other. Dry ice will not work as these things are well equiped by nature to live in low oxygen envirements. They will just dig deeper into the substrate and you will probably damage plants and pretty much anything else living in your tank before getting rid of them.
> 
> If in your search you find anything that will help.. please keep us updated.



thanks for the comments..maybe I'll take the frogs out, try the dry ice and leave the tank empty for several months, at low temperatures, not low enough to kill the plants, but maybe low enough to kill the worms..any success will be reported!

bye!


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

From what little is in the literature, it appears that they can readily withstand long periods of starvation (long is not defined) with little or no harm. 

Keep in mind if the populations boomed that high in the enclosure it was because conditions were very well suited to the worms, and it may simply just reoccur once a food source is readded to the system. Many people have tried CO2 including sealing the tank up for at least three days to try and kill the nemerteans with little reported effect on the worms. Check out Alan's website AJCs Virtual Frogroom: Search results for nemertean and the frognet archives for other things that have been tried.

Ed


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## ChrisK (Oct 28, 2008)

Yeah I got those in my Escudo tank but they're not in any of the others. I just learned to deal with them - they don't affect the woodlice at all, I'm just worried that maybe they might affect the springtail population I'm going to start seeding soon before the froglets come out of the water


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

ChrisK said:


> Yeah I got those in my Escudo tank but they're not in any of the others. I just learned to deal with them - they don't affect the woodlice at all, I'm just worried that maybe they might affect the springtail population I'm going to start seeding soon before the froglets come out of the water


 
They will affect the springtail population. You will have to continually feed the tank springtails. 

Ed


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

I had them in a viv, they decimated my springtail population, ate all the fruit flies they could get, and were everywhere. I couldn't do anything except a total teardown to kill them off. 
They DO eat baby slugs though, that was the only plus side


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## ashb (Dec 9, 2009)

Are you sure they are nemerteans and not white worms/grindal worms?


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## Lance (Sep 8, 2008)

Ive had a pretty bad cause of nemerteans in one of my tanks. All I did was just let the tank dry out. Now I let the thing dry for months im talking about 6 months worth then in a last effort I used the dry ice method and well ive yet to see anything of those damn nemerteans 2 months after the co2 bomb.


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## goku (Nov 11, 2009)

Lance said:


> Ive had a pretty bad cause of nemerteans in one of my tanks. All I did was just let the tank dry out. Now I let the thing dry for months im talking about 6 months worth then in a last effort I used the dry ice method and well ive yet to see anything of those damn nemerteans 2 months after the co2 bomb.



If I understood well, you've been successefull right?
In my case, I don't care if there are some in the tank, but if you don't remove them and you tend to overfeed the frogs a bit (like me) in a few months they go crazy!
now for a few days I am being very dilligent and removing at night any I see many times, and it alredy feels better, as long as it is a quite small enclosure.
So for your comments I have to asume that I am dealing with super-organisms! So maybe I can't elliminate them at 100%, but I think I'll try to take out the frogs, low the temperature and spray few for some months, removing any I see. Even if they come back later, I am sure that their number will seriously decrease, and after that they should be easy to controll..at least I hope

Regards!


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## Lance (Sep 8, 2008)

I guess you could say at this point of time ive been successful. I havent seen any in the last 2 months when I moved my group of A.Hahneli into the tank. I feed every 2 days and still ive yet to see any Nemerteans.


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## Nat (Feb 11, 2014)

ashb said:


> Are you sure they are nemerteans and not white worms/grindal worms?


Grindal worms will barely survive a day at our frogs tropical temperatures, before getting rotting, all slimey and stinky!


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## JPP (Mar 25, 2015)

Nat said:


> Grindal worms will barely survive a day at our frogs tropical temperatures, before getting rotting, all slimey and stinky!


Our frogs' tropical temperatures? Dart frogs are kept at room temps. Please don't heat your frogs, you were already talking about heating your viv/tadpoles in another thread: http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/breeding-eggs-tadpoles/293049-overheating-tadpoles.html


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## frogyiee (Jul 25, 2017)

goku said:


> The problem is that in this viv I have a very nice moss grow, it took a year and a half to get like this and I don't want to loose it.


I at one point had so many tadpoles I had to set aside a tank for tadpoles. The substrate dried to a brick and the moss on the back wall turned yellow. After about four months, I decided to start the vivarium up again so I replaced the substrate and started bringing up humidity a bit, and the moss on the wall restarted. It is thriving now. I did try to plant some new moss on the ground, but it isn't doing well. Maybe I am just lucky, but there is a chance that the moss will revive if you dry out the tank.


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## Ravage (Feb 5, 2016)

I haven't tried this as a cure for nemerteans, but I saw it happen. 
Nemerteans need air. Period.
This is not a sure cure, but it worked in a grow out for me- accidentally. The nemerteans came from wild collected moss, and the flood was an accident. But it sure made the nemerteans flee. I have not seen them since.
I don't know if it was a complete "cure" since it only happened once.
I plan to try the multiple flood technique if I see them again. This is experimental, but I thought it might be worthwhile to share this information.

*Remove frogs or other animals.* Raise the water level so that the substrate is completely submerged. They will flee up the walls overnight. Wipe them out with paper towel, or whatever. Grabbing worms doesn't bother me, but not everyone feels the same way, fingers are very efficient at removing them. Next completely drain the substrate from below with a siphon.. This may be easier said than done if you don't have a water layer below eggcrate.
Then let it stay dry. Drain it again if too much watercomes back out of the substrate layer. In a week or two, do it again: submerge drain, repeat, maybe with a longer dry out interval. THIS WILL STRESS THE PLANTS, so you really would need to get it drained quickly.The nemerteans will migrate out at night. There will be eggs, and they will probably be pretty resistant to a transient flood: so it probably needs to be done several times. Don't add anything that would feed them.
They can drown, but will try to avoid it. So there might be other methods you can develop based on that simple fact.


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