Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A little while ago I found these little white worms wriggling all around in my tank. I had them before with fish, was told they were "nematodes" and that the only way to kill them was by bleaching. My fish ended up dying and I'm sure these critters didn't help.

Now, these things have come up for the third time in my turtle tank. I bleached everything the first two times and thought the coast was clear, but now they're back. My question is, are they harmful to the turtle? Could they be coming from the turtle? Or are they just gross to look at? They're not very big, less than an inch in length. They're white and wriggle around on the sides of the tank and kind of swim through the water.

The water is kept from 76-80 degrees (depending on how hot the house gets) he has his lights on for 12 hours a day, and since they second time I found these things (after bleaching and all) I've been feeding my turtle outside the tank. However, there is some waste in the tank from after he eats.

Thanks for any advice

Was anything in your tank caught from a pond or some kind of wild habitat? It's was probably brought in if that's true. If bleaching didn't help...I don't really know what will. You can try asking your vet...that's about all I can come up with right now though. sorry and good luck!

Hi,
I had the same problem when I used to feed my turtle ReptoMin. I even fed her outside the tank, but sometimes she wouldn't poop within the hour so I put her back into her tank and she would poop there, but of course, you poop what you eat, so the worms would still swim around. Try to keep taking the worms out, because if you leave them in there, they end up spawning and creating these reddish balls of themselves in the corners of the tank, which is quite disgusting. I would suggest really cleaning out the tank again, change any gravel, change the filters, and stop feeding your turtle ReptoMin (I use NutraFin now) for a while before putting her back into her permanent tank to clean out her system.
GOOD LUCK!

That's really weird. Is there something in the ingredients? I'm looking at the two bottles right now...There's no extremely huge difference. Reptomin seems to have a few more ingredients (or maybe it's the font, which is bigger XP lol). I feed my turtles reptomin and I don't have that problem. Maybe it's the temperature or light exposure or the like. hmmmm O.O