i’m openly soliciting expert opinions on this worm that just appeared in the GF’s ten-gallon freshwater aquarium. we spotted this worm and a nearly identical twin just this morning. what’s particularly upsetting is their size. they are about an inch and a half long.
One was thrashing in the aquarium vegetation about six inches from the bottom, and the other was poking around on a rock. by the afternoon they were both on the bottom, and appearing to make half-hearted attempts to burrow into the gravel. when poked they squirm something fierce.
this photo appears to show segments like a leech, but the worm didn’t display any leechlike behaviors, it didn’t move like a leech (it thrashed without body contraction), and it does not appear to have either anterior or posterior suckers. you can see that the head is pale white and the body is brownish gray. there is a slight flatness to the shape of the body.
the head:
the body:
i’m worried that these worms came out of one of our fish, some sort of roundworm intestinal parasite, but even our biggest fish (an elephant nose and an ancistrus) are only about three times longer than these worms.
we’ve been feeding the elephantnose and the african frog a combination of frozen blood worms and black worms. i suppose there could have been some different worms riding in on those, but where would they have been hiding all this time? they can’t move through the gravel and there isn’t much else to hide them.
i just hope they don’t represent a health risk to me personally, because that would totally freak me out. i’m freaking out just thinking about it.
the GF fished both worms out with the net and threw them out in the trash. i’m not going to let her touch me until she takes a shower.
