LisaLQ
Archachatina papyracea
Old friend (emphasis on the "old")
Posts: 2,995
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Worms
Mar 27, 2006 22:36:02 GMT
Post by LisaLQ on Mar 27, 2006 22:36:02 GMT
They're hard enough to see with the naked eye, I dont think I'd get them on camera - sorry Fulicas have them in there too now. Kathy thinks I'm a dirty moo because Sherman's in with the margies so therefore he's got them too. Paul - did you ever manage to find out what they are? Is it something that needs getting rid of, or just one of those things? I've stripped the margie tank down to just capillary matting and their food dish (of the margies - have only just found the ones in the fulicas whilst looking at the walls of their storage tub). Should I go down to bare plastic? Should I do this with the other snails too? Poor things.
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Worms
Mar 28, 2006 1:56:59 GMT
Post by Paul on Mar 28, 2006 1:56:59 GMT
Unfortunately not yet, I've not been able to get to the pest department during office hours.
You can clean your tank all you wish but they will come back, they stay on the body of the snail and no doubt get transferred back to food where they multiply fast. I tried hypoaspis but they didn't eat them, or rather it didn't solve the problem. But I must admit when I got the hypoaspis they were probably too small to tackle the worms, I'm hoping they will do better as time goes on and they grow.
The snails are adversely affected in my opinion when confronted in large quantities, particularly small snails. I found that Melafix kills the worms, but unfortunately only in strengths that would probably burn the snail.
Until someone gets some ID'd properly, I would suggest regular bathing and removing food and faeces promptly to limit the problem. They do extra well in very wet conditions so I would keep your tank drier if possible to limit them also.
Unfortunately bathing the snails repeatedly won't get rid of all of them, I have still seen them under magnification after repeated baths. Also, I hope that the fact they can be observed on the body explains why they reoccur. If they reoccurred after the snails were clean externally, it would indicate they are some sort of snail parasite and probably more difficult to shake off. At the moment I'm gonna for the former option, until we know more.
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KathyM
Achatina tincta
Posts: 709
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Worms
Mar 28, 2006 13:24:47 GMT
Post by KathyM on Mar 28, 2006 13:24:47 GMT
Kathy thinks I'm a dirty moo because Sherman's in with the margies so therefore he's got them too. No I bloomin' do not, you daft moomin! It's not your fault and nobody knows how they got in. So ner ner nicky ner ner.
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Worms
Apr 1, 2007 21:33:45 GMT
Post by knoding on Apr 1, 2007 21:33:45 GMT
Hi,
I am also suffering from this small worms in my snail tanks. and i'm quite sure they are some sort of nematodes, most likely parasitic.
I'm also useing coir from bricks and i think it's a possability that they came with the coir becorse the previous owner of my snails used another type of substrate and has never seen them.
I first got them in the tank where i keep my adult A. fulica's and when i resently got eggs on my snails, i removed the eggs and keeped them in another room under the incubation. Now a few days after the eggs have hatched i can see them in with the baby snails.
I know of the possability of the worms being transfered from the other tank through the substrate, but i think they where transfered from the adult snails to the eggs and when the eggs hatched and the baby snails started to excremate the nematode worms started to show up.
I think i found a possible remedy to limiting the worms and it's the nematode wormeating fungai, Duddingtonia flagrans. I haven't tried it but i think it might work.
Excuse my spelling but english is not my mother tongue.
Rgrds Albin
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Worms
Apr 1, 2007 22:08:24 GMT
Post by slimeaddict on Apr 1, 2007 22:08:24 GMT
I've had these lately too, wierd little things - I agree that they do look like nematode's to me. However I've not seen them on the snails themselves only on the sides of the tank... substrate wise, I use vermiculite which I bake first. Mine seem to be kept at bay with a stringent cleaning reigeme. I bought a tiny poop scoop desiged for hamsters and make sure I remove the poo morning and evening, this seems to be doing the trick. So far!!
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Worms
Apr 2, 2007 20:46:08 GMT
Post by knoding on Apr 2, 2007 20:46:08 GMT
I'm sure frequent cleaning will remove the worms you can see but the worms inside the snails won't disappear. If they are parasitic that is. I have done some experiments on the worm in my tanks and rising the temperatur seem to kill them. The problem is that it might also kill the snails. I haven't yet found out the exact temperature when the worms start dieing. But 45 degrees celsius almost instantly kill em. here is a link to a video clip on one species of parasitic nematodes in the rear end of a human. It's a bit disgusting. content.nejm.org/content/vol354/issue13/images/data/e12/DC1/NEJM_Brown_e12v1.swfThe worms in the clip doesn't exactly look like the ones in my tank (it's another species) but its gives you an idea of how they can look. Rgrds Albin
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