Nematodes/parasites?

[leah]

During a water change yesterday, I noticed a long (1/4" maybe)very thin worm in my taricha enclosure. They are on the glass in the water section, and in small clusters where the water meets the land. There were a few on the newts, not many, but they didnt seem to be bothering anything, just sitting on them. The newts have no sores or anything to make me think they were an ectoparasite. I've never seen them in there before, and this is a relatively established tank. Unfortunately, there are a host of places they could have come from, the soil, plants, food (they are eating mostly frozen worms of sorts lately) or the newts themselves. Both are long term captives (1 year approximately) and have never been treated for parasites.

I am looking for a place to start with this- if I know where they are coming from, I can eradicate the problem, but I am not going to shotgun the newts or sterilize the tank if they are harmless.

I can post pictures tonight.

Thanks
-Leah

 

[TJ]

Are you sure they're not planaria?

http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/8/25876.html

Then again, you did say very thin, which the planaria I have seen are not. Do post that pic!

 

[leah]

Tim,

They are not planaria (thanks for the link though). They are very thin, like a piece of thread, relatively long, and they congregate around things in the water (rocks, wood) that are against the glass, kind of pile up in places.

I think they are just some kind of harmless little thing, but I'm not real excited about them being in there. We're constructing a new, 30 gallon tank for the Taricha, and I dont want these little worms in the new tank if I can help it.

I'll try to get the pics up tonight, got sidetracked with some new arrivals this week...

 

[jennifer]

I have had worms that fit your description. They eventually went away on their own. Most likely, they feed on any form of nutrients they can find in the tank. Before doing anything drastic, I'd suggest doing a very thorough gravel cleaning and some extra water changes and see if they decrease on their own. Make sure there is ZERO leftover food. Do you have one of those gravel-washing siphons?

 

[leah]

Yes, I have been using the siphon, I took out all the rocks and cleaned them to eliminate any uneaten food. I'll see if that helps. I'll attach pics.

 

[leah]

 

[jennifer]

Those look similar to what I had, but mine were free-swimming. I never saw them sitting on the newts, like these appear to be.

 

[leah]

I havent seen them since I took out all the gravel and cleaned it (but that was yesterday-)

They dont swim, they just crawl across the glass, and sit, (not moving) on rocks, wood and anything else that touches the glass. I didnt notice them swimming or doing anything off the glass aside from sitting on the newts...

I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on them, and see what happens...

Thanks for the thoughts everyone.