# Nemerteans



## Reece93 (Jul 24, 2017)

Is there any way to get rid of these once you have them? They have somehow got into my feature vivarium housing pumillio with lots of tadpoles so co2 bombing is not an option. My once thriving springtail population is now non existent and I'm worried about newly forming frogs aren't going to get the food they need. Thanks in advance.


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## Entomologist210 (Apr 24, 2014)

Are you positive that's what you have? Granted, I'm not a parasitologist (apart from Acari) but I thought that phyla was mostly filter feeders in oceans. Only thing I can think of that you might have as an option would be some form of fenbendazole mixed with water and sprayed into the affected areas in very small amounts. I know it works for fish, but I have no idea what it'd do to frogs. Anyone else know?


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## S2G (Jul 5, 2016)

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/ge...et-rid-nemerteans-without-restarting-viv.html

If your sure that's what you have then I can't find any good news for you. Once they get in a bug culture or Viv its game over from my understanding.


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## Reece93 (Jul 24, 2017)

Yeah I'm sure I have watched them prey on them. Don't touch anything else but them. I'm amazed there isn't anything that will eat them...


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## kimcmich (Jan 17, 2016)

@Entomologist210

They are a largely marine group but, like molluscs, have a made a successful expansion to terrestrial habitats in moist climates. The terrestrial species are predominantly carnivores eating arthropods (insects, isopods, etc), molluscs (snails and slugs) and annelids. 

There was a large black one where I grew up in Alabama that preyed on large land snails. Until a recent CO2 bomb, I had a large population of a small grey nemertean in my large viv. I have not seen any since, however (though the CO2 treatment was a just-in-case for slugs in some new plants - not to hit the nemerteans directly).

@Reece93,

Sad to say eliminating them is going to be next-to impossible. Like molluscs, they are similar enough to amphibians that anything that will kill them out-right will damage your frogs. If your population is not a plague then you might not experience a problem with froglet mortality directly. 

Are you sure the nemerteans are responsible for springtail decline? Has their population exploded?


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## theeternalstudent (Jul 26, 2015)

Yikes, good luck if those are nemerteans. After a year of trying various methods, including CO2 bombing multiple times, adding some of the larger isopods sp I had, such as giant orange and skirted, and maniacally squishing them with no success and ended up having to tear down my 40g. I'm not sure it would be possible to maintain a springtail population for your new froglets, even if you were continuously re-adding them into your tank. Best of luck!


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

I recall at least one hobbyist who had a bad Nemertean problem. He could never grow springtails, but he reported no problems keeping dwarf purple isopods. I don't recall who it was, but I do recall it was a pumilio viv, and he said he always had plenty of baby purples in the viv for fresh morphs to eat.


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## Ravage (Feb 5, 2016)

I remember that too. And since I have nemerteans in a couple of vivs due to a temporary slackening of vigilance which shall hereafter be referred to as: "the Moss Incident" I recently acquired Dwarf purples to see if it works. It's too soon to tell but I wanted to add that I actually see very few Nemerteans (and I look for them) because I keep the tanks in question rather lean.
I like to keep all of my "ecosystems" tight: meaning that I try to limit nutrient cycles so that all concerned parties: bacteria to frog, have to work "just a bit" to make a living. In America we tend to think that more is better, but the study of nature tells us that whatever is available is enough. Keeping a lean balance on nutrient inputs seem to keep even the big bad Nemertean in check. In ecology boom cycles always lead to a bust. So if you keep feeding the viv springtails, you'll harvest a bumper crop of Nemerteans.
I'm really hoping that dwarf purples just taste bad so the population is kept in check. And that's nature: there's room for everything, even parasites, if it all stays in balance.
Let's keep sharing the intel.


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## Louis (Apr 23, 2014)

One solution for nemerteans is to incorporate a tiny predatory invertebrate in your microfauna. I use two different species of rove beetle in my tanks and although they presumably do also prey on baby isopods, and certainly on all stages of the springtail lifecycle, both adults and larvae heavily favour any type of small worm or gnat larvae and can also survive on organic detritus if food is scarce. I believe they may also eat some mites. 
The rove beetles breed in my tanks and I have no problem at all maintaining springtails or isopods in the same enclosures and I get far fewer of any sort of worms or nemerteans climbing the glass. It may be the case that one day the beetle population will explode and wipe out all my spingtails and isopods but if they do the geckos won't care that they're grazing on beetles rather than springtails. 
I do add a pellet of organic chicken food for the beetles every now and then when I feed the rest of the microfauna or top up the leaf litter.


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## kimcmich (Jan 17, 2016)

Greetings,

After doing more research, I have been able to id what I thought were pest nemerteans as actually being terrestrial flatworms.

Although there are indeed terrestrial nemertean species (so it's not impossible to have an infestation of them), every example I've seen so far posted are actually _*Rhynchodemus sylvaticus*_ - a terrestrial planarian.

The taxonomic difference does not much change the prognosis: Either way, these organisms are very, very hard to eliminate. A C02 bomb is likely one of your only options (and has drawback of its own) unless you can find an effective biocontrol.


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