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worms in waterfall??

iceyesnteeth Nov 08, 2005 10:33 AM

i posted this in the dart frog section since i figured they may know better,but i have gotten no reply as of yesterday and im a bit anxious to find out,for the health of my animals sake,so maybe someone here can shed some light on my problem.im currently housing a green tree python in a naturalistic ,dart frog style setup,with false bottom and self contained exoterra waterfall.the waterfall has been running very slow the past couple days,and i have noticed small pieces of moss circulating in the water,so i figured some moss,soil and other debree must have begun to build up and is slowing down the pump.while i was doing a partial water change in the waterfall,i noticed swimming in the glass,very small,almost invisable to the naked eye,tiny white worms wiggling in the water.kinda like spastic motions.my tank is very natural with soil substrate and countless plants and other accents.i have a collony of springtails living in the soil and i see an occasional one crawling on the rocks,and im sure i have other insects living in there too and i am not worried about them as i hear that they are good and show a healthy ecosystem in my vivarium.what i am worried about are these worms and how they are living in my snakes drinking water.any idea what they are and if they can infect my snake??doing a total water change in the waterfall im sure will remove most of them for a couple days,but they are surly living in the soil and thats where they came from.besides,my waterfall is submurged in the soil and moss and plants have begum growing around it and now i cant remove the waterfall without destroying much of my setup.anyway,thanks in advance and let me know if i should be worried.

Replies (1)

Jeanin Nov 09, 2005 05:56 AM

Are you sure they arent mosquito larvae or some type of leech that was in the soil than layed eggs in water ?
I had a mosquito lay eggs in my salamanders water but I saw the tiny larvae and dumped the water cleaned out the water fall and problem solved.
They looked at first like glass tiny worms that swam spastic .
You could remove the soil if you have worms that annoy you and bake it in oven for awhile .
I use the natural look to for my salamanders but everything can be removed and I do here and there to clean it with very hot water.
Even if no one knows what worms you have and chances harmless but baking the soil cleaning everything else even though a pain is a way to kill once and for all whatever it is.

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