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I just found some sort of worm (I think) in my betta tank. It is about 5cm long and the thickness of a gourami ventral fin/feeler thing. At first I thought it was from a plant, then it moved. I took it out for a closer look and it didn't seem to like being out of the water, it was curling around my finger.

Does anyone know what this might be? Would it be like a tapeworm i.e. internal parasite? I didn't notice it this morning when I was checking on the betta (he's been a bit listless for about a day, seems better now though).

did u put it back in? if u did, well that was kinda stupid well, im not sure of what it is, but if it is a parasite, and u put it back in, well, u could have a problem, i cant think of what it could be besides a fluke of some sort

What type of worm was it (i.e. nematode, flatworm, annelid)? Did it have any sort of enlarged mouthparts or sucker disc on its head? What color was it?

I found a large nematode in a display tank at work, and it was about 18" long and red in color. It did not appear to be parasitic, so I just put it back into the tank. Immediately it crawled back down into the gravel, and we have not had any problems (there were lots more of the worms in the tank). I figured that by crawling through the gravel and aerating it while (I assume) scavenging organic material in the gravel, the worm was actually good for the tank.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I didn't put it back, I figured that I hadn't put it in there in the first place so it didn't belong.

When I found it, it was hanging on a plant. It was a whitish-cream colour, I couldn't see any mouth-like parts. It just looked like a gourami's feeler, approx 2inches long. After it had dried out it did look slightly flat so it could have been some sort ot tapeworm. I tried to find info about parasitic worms on the Net, all I could find were microscopic worms.

The betta whose tank I removed it from is back to his normal self, not lethargic like he was before I found the worm. Could it have been inside him? If so, why did it come out?