It's crazy looking whatever it is! Any ideas how they got in there? It's kinda creeping me out just watching the vid.
It is creepy! I'm glad I'm not the only one. I have no idea how they got there. As I mentioned, the tank hasn't been set up for long. The substrate was new. The plants came from my red cherry shrimp tank, which I'm now watching very closely for these critters, but I haven't seen any yet.
wow...looks like something I'd find in the inside cover of a junior science book. My wild guess would be a very big aquatic flatworm. I googled "aquatic flatworm" and got results related to planaria so who knows. That thing slithered across the top of the gravel. That's just a little creepy.
Speaking of junior science book--since I'm going to attempt to get one of these "things" out of the tank today to get a closer look/picture of it, I really wish I had a microscope. I'm sure it's an interesting, yet creepy, critter.
It is planaria from what I can tell. It looks to have the tell tell arrow shaped head of a planaria... Planaria are generally harmless they will on occassion get baby shrimp but very rarely, and I have heard they will get snail eggs too but this is unconfirmed. Cut back on feeding and try to clean the substrate as much as you can. I have about 20 or so in my tank since I have a heavily planted tank there is a lot to feed on and I can't clean all areas of the tank due to the plants
Detritus Worms which I can gaurntee you have since they are in virtually every tanks will usually stay in the lower substrate unless the tank is way overfeed or not cleaned often enough. Detritus worms look like very very small white earthworms..
I'm going to take a look and see if I can notice the arrow shaped head. That would certainly help to identify it. I've never seen a detritus worm in any of my tanks. I guess that's something I have yet to experience. I do have live tubifex worms in all of my tanks--I learned a lesson about feeding live worms a little too late! :wall: When it comes to planaria, I haven't researched much; although, I have heard that they can and will kill juvenile shrimp. If they are indeed planaria, I will be doing my best to get rid of them. The thing about cleaning the substrate, it's a bit easier said than done. I have a piece of nylon over the end of my gravel vacuum tube so that the little shrimps don't get sucked up. I guess I may have to remove that and maybe run the other end of the siphon hose through the breeder net to catch any sucked up shrimp. I'd really rather not do that though. Ugh!
Though it doesn't reflect on the intended purpose of the video, awesome shrimp tank! How many adults do you have in there right now?
Thank you! There are probably 30 or so adult yellow shrimp in there. I've been working on building up a good colony for 3-4 months now. There are several babies of all sizes.
Flatworms of all sorts creep me out!
You and me both! I don't even want to do my tank maintenance today because I don't want to stick my hand in there.
