Earthworms living on plant roots?

[Bmeasure]

I have had a 150 planted running for about 10 months now. It houses a Blackbelt Cichlid (11") and a 8" Pleco, and it has just been too difficult to keep things looking tidy in this tank with such a territorial (he thinks he's an interior decorator! ) cichlid, so I wanted to remove pretty much all the plants.

While I was pulling up the Vals and Swords, I noticed several red (bloodworm colored) miniature "earthworm-looking" babies, some of which are up to 4" or so wrapped up tightly in the rootball. They are living and doing fine, and I've discovered at least 30 or so in all my roots.

I assume they are earthworms because I have found earthworms while gardening and have brought them in a few occasions to feed to my cichlid, which he appreciates very much, but somehow one must have escaped. Another possibility is that a segment of one regenerated (which they do) and found safety and was able to multiply.

They questions I have are:
1) Are they a problem to have growing in the substrate and in general in the aquarium? I can't see why, but maybe they can be.

2) Are they possibly eating my plant roots or just enjoying living next to the most oxygen rich part of the substrate?

3) Is it possible for them to overpopulate an aquarium? Especially since I'm wanting to move these plants to a smaller tank with smaller, less aggressive fish which probably won't be able to eat even a smaller earthworm. I cannot detach them without destroying the rootball almost entirely. If it could be a problem, I may just toss these plants.

4) Could they actually be a highly productive and helpful addition to aquariums? I use roughly a 50/50 mix of playsand and Flourite, and the worms seem to move quite readily through this substrate. They could even help to loosen the soil and aid in oxygenation. Not to mention that they would probably be excellent at breaking down uneaten food and such into more processed "castings" for bacteria and plants to use. Is this simply a more bio-diverse tank now, and as such, more stable?

I already have this posted in the Planted Tank forum as well, but since more often people add earthworms to tanks with larger cichlids, I thought I might ask here as well.

Thanks for your time and input!

[Fifi]

I don't know much about earthworms but I do know they can't survive in water without access to air.
When I put in earth worms they DROWN and I feel really cruel, but the fish love them!
Could they be a differnt type of worm? One that breeds in water?

[RTR]

There are many worms in the world, there are even many aquatic worms or worm-like creatures.

The presence of something wormy in the substrate does not upset me. The presence of lots of something wormy in the gravel/sand/soil and/or emerging ito the water column is to me a sign of excessive organics in the substrate, which can result in anoxia to the point of danger in the substrate. I have had a foul substrate in the past, and I do not want to ever go there again.

So to me, a bit is good or at least interesting. A lot would set off alarm bells.

[Bmeasure]

I hear ya! They are not coming into the water column (at least visibly), but look exactly like the "nightcrawlers" (?) that I dumped last week (several of them) and a few other times in the past, except that they are much smaller and pinker (reddish). The color seems appropriate for a worm living in water vs. soil, since they aren't taking in as much brown dirt. They move and act just the same as the earthworms I added, but look like babies. I do not notice them anywhere except on very established root balls, with many fine roots. It would also make sense that they may be migrating there for the oxygen content surrounding healthy, established plant roots, eh?

As far as there being a high organic load in the tank: it is stocked only with the two large(ish) fish, and was heavily stocked with plants. The nitrate readings did get the highest they've ever gotten, which was about 50ppm after about 3 weeks. I normally change every week, but have been blessed lately with tons of work, and my fish is paying for it. Part of the problem with the nitrates is the plant debris that my Blackbelt tears up. He's constantly trying to change the aquascape, and I actually had my first tank overflow (very little water) because my overflow clogged with plant debris. I finally decided to remove all but a couple of Java ferns and Anubias, and this is when I found the worms. Just as a comparison, I normally keep my nitrates below 20ppm topps!

[RTR]

I got rid of all my Java Fern because the plantlets clogged intakes too much, so i cna identify with that.

[ghinksmon]

Earthworms would have drowned, could be black worms. If you don't feed blackworms maybe they came in on your plants originally. I've had blackworms surviving in the silty layer of an undergarvel filter.