# White worms???!



## choco (May 1, 2009)

Today I noticed this colony of worms that seems to have exploded in my vivarium. I've never seen these guys before, the longest seem to be about half an inch long. There are some squirming around in this colony mass on the glass, and looking in the small water section I saw they were there as well.

Does anyone know what these are, and if they are harmful to my frogs?

I did a search on threads for "white worms" and saw a wide variety, so I wanted to ask. They're pictured below.

This particular viv has been running for the last 15 months, so I'm really confused as to where they appeared from. If they were there previously I didn't notice them, perhaps because they weren't this prolific? I don't know. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## MonkeyFrogMan28 (Feb 3, 2009)

I dont think they will hurt. I use them as a major food source with my juvenile T. shanjing. Quite a few Caudate keepers use them. I think they are fine.


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## carola1155 (Sep 10, 2007)

I have them in some of my vivs and have never noticed them causing a problem... ive even seen my frogs go after them when they are squirming around a lot.





choco said:


> This particular viv has been running for the last 15 months, so I'm really confused as to where they appeared from. If they were there previously I didn't notice them, perhaps because they weren't this prolific? I don't know.


Little changes in the condition of your viv can cause swings in populations of things like those. So if you fed heavily for a couple days and the frogs pooped more, maybe the population of worms experienced a boom. ya never know, but its nothing to worry about

you'd be suprised how many things pop up in a viv over time. Life's little surprises  I just had a giant fern come out of nowhere in a tank that has been running for more than 2 years now.


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## blacksmith (Feb 24, 2009)

Those are probably Nemertea/proboscis worms. They aren't a problem for your frogs, but they will attack springtails and fruit flys. There are some people who think they might attack eggs, and some that say they don't.


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## gretchenellie (Aug 7, 2007)

I had those Worms show up before in one tank.

I also noticed around the same time, that my springtail population dwindled very quickly.. and I could not get any springs to survive in that tank after I saw the Worms..

Its possible that something else was to blame and may have been a coincidence that I saw the worms and then my springs disappeared, but I am not sure..

I made the decision to tear my tank down, bleach it out, and start over again..


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## Dragonfly (Dec 5, 2007)

My experience, if they are the same as I get, is that more food debris seems to increase them. Not a problem worm. I notice them on the petri dish only if I have missed eggs and the eggs were already bad.


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## choco (May 1, 2009)

Awesome! Thank you everyone for your impute. Really appreciate it!


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