Tiny White Worms with Black Heads (+ photos)

[ihatejacknjills]

I have recently found some nasty white worms with black heads on my snail tank, and I have so far been unable to identify them. The worms vary in size between 5mm and 10mm, and seem to be attracted to the snails' poo - especially the bright orange poo where they have been eating carrots!

I have managed to get one of the worms out of the tank and photgraph it through my microscope.

At first I thought these guys were some kind of nematodes, but then I saw the black head. They also don't seem to move like nematodes - they almost move like a caterpillar.

Any ideas what they could be?

[coyote]

I'm not sure . . . perhaps it is some kind of maggot?

[Katie]

I have no idea what they are, but those pictures are amazing
I'd get them out of the tank anyway, give it a thorough wash out

[muddydragon]

deffinatly looks like a small maggot.

[ihatejacknjills]

I think you are right about the them being a type of maggot - I'm starting to think that they might be fungus gnat larvae.

I have moved some of them out of the tank and into a jam jar with a bit of snail poo and some soil and removed the rest of them from the tank. I am going to keep them until they pupate and hatch out as flies (or whatever they turn into) so that I can identify them.

I will post back here when I have some results!

[coyote]

I will be very interested to find out what they are.

[lucyjames]

They do look like the fungus gnat, or fruit fly larvae, that I get in my vivarium... They are little black flies no bigger than 4-5mm...

They are actually good to have in the tank in small numbers as they eat up rotting food and snail faeces...

But personally I don't like the idea of it!!!


Fab pictures though ;D

[Rachel]

yeah, they are ok with eating waste, but they are not very good at not spreading germs, and tend to fly around and land in my drink. Not happy when that happens. The moment they start turning up I just get some hypoasis, usually happens every few months so it fits my preventative measures timetable. I hatez flies.

[cookilicious]

wow the pics are amazin! yeah my sis was sick once she was eatin an orange and some crawled out hehe. so yeah maggots. Did they pupate yet?

[ihatejacknjills]

I put some of the worms/maggots in a jam jar with some snail poo but they haven't pupated yet. They have eaten most of the poo, so I will probably put more in tonight when I clean out my snails.

I have seen a couple of really tiny flies in my snail tank so these could be the adults - it's impossible to tell if they came from these white worms though until I get some of the ones in my jar to pupate.

When they finally do turn into adults I will try and get some photos...