worms

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I've searched the forum as well as the net and am still not sure what kind of worms I have hiding out in my pond filter. They are between .5 and 1.5 inches and dark with possibly a redish tint. Based on my searches I suspect they are blood worms, but they aren't nearly as bright red as those I've seen on the net. I only noticed them the last two filter changes. The first time I noticed them they were much smaller and I freaked and did my best to kill them all. Today when I changed the filter I didn't expect to find any at all but found some larger ones. I didn't take pictures of the first batch, but I have of the ones I found today. Here are a couple. These were the best pictures I could get. I also took a video of one wiggling.
ronsred88-albums-rons-pond-picture552-worms.jpg

ronsred88-albums-rons-pond-picture553-dscn2121.jpg

Zoomed:
ronsred88-albums-rons-pond-picture554-worms-zoomed.jpg

Video (I hope):
[ame="[MEDIA=youtube]E-6IzOo97W0[/MEDIA]"]

So are these blood worms, or do I need to be worried?

Ron
 

hewhoisatpeace

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Look more like leeches to me, esp. the way they grab on to stuff. I've found them in my filter, too, and they just don't look like fly larvae.
 
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To me they look alot like leeches also. I did a litle searching the internet and I can see how they can be mistaken for each other. The 3rd picture is the one that makes me really think leech since it has the one sucker end. But I have never seen them at the same time. So this is just a guess.
 
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Ewww, I checked out the website MikeyToo suggested,:
MikeyToo said:
They certainly appear to be blood worms, a natural occurrence in ponds. The Midge fly lays its eggs in pond water and the eggs become the larva of the midge fly. Not really a worm but a larva and not harmful. Here is more info: http://www.naturegrid.org.uk/pondexplorer/gallery/bloodwrm.html

It also has a section on leeches with a picture that looks nearly identical to mine. I'm tending to agree with the leech theory.
http://www.naturegrid.org.uk/pondexplorer/gallery/leech.html

Are these bad boys going to start sucking on my fish?
If so, how do I kill 'em?

Ron
 

hewhoisatpeace

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Ron

From what I understand, there are "fish leeches", these are not they. They look just like what we used to get on our legs down at Ft Stewart, training in the swamps, if we weren't smart enough to wear big panty hose under our BDU pants.

I've never heard of them being a fish problem, but maybe should investigate. I'll bet those darn screaming frogs brought 'em!
 

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