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Hey everyone,
I wanted to ask you a few questions.

This morning I woke up and turned my tank lights on and found a worm on the front glass crawling and wondering if I should be panicking. It was less than a half inch long, fat, white, and very clearly visible. As in I didn't have to squint or look real hard to spot it. I'm worried that it may be an anchor worm. I don't have fish in the tank yet but there suppose to go in, in a few days and I don't want them to get it.

In my panic I took the scraper and squished it ( I should of grabbed a camera ) I did look around the tank to see if there were others but couldn't find any, and now I'm scared to put my hands in the tank... am I worrying over nothing.


I know its not planeria (sp?) because I know what that looks like any ideas?


thanks

tigermom

Well i just looked up some pictures and now i know its not ancor worm or any other common worm for fresh water. I have no idea what it was. Just a single white fat worm. It was slow moving and wormy lol. Well im gonna go do a water change and see if there are more.

Well ive given up, i have no idea what it was. Im going to hope and that it was a larva from a bug that came in through the window and I killed it before it could cause any problems. I didnt see a thing in the substrate or on the plants so oh well for now. But I will keep an eye out and keep a camara by the tank.

tigermom

could it have been a maggot from a fly larvae?

Est solarus uth mithas,My honor is my life

Anchor worm dont really look like the description, it could well have been something like a caddis fly larvae or similar, or a species of nematode, possibly even a leech. Best plan is , if you dont know what it is, remove it, and well you already did that.

If you see another post a piccy!

More likely a leech. Not all that uncommon. Several are actualy harmless and just eat leftover food. Some though are the more well known bloodsuckers and can kill fish. Since it's quite hard for the average aquarist to tell the difference between the two most take the approach of kill first and try to ID later. Having IDed some in one of my tanks as bad I netted all my inverts out and dosed the tank with cupramine. That was the end of the leeches and I was able to put my shrimp back in the tank within the week.