Worm Identification       2/27/18
I just bought an existing Aquaponic business and these worms are in my deep water culture grow beds and want make sure they are not parasitic and accidentally get transferred via the food I will be harvesting. Please help me identify if possible....
The photos are the bottom of my shopvac from cleaning out one of the grow beds.
Thank you in advance for your assistance. Cas
<Hello Cas. Can't possibly identify what these are without sharper photos of individual worms. Indeed, identifying worms to species level usually requires a microscope. These look harmless enough, but if you're doing this to grow food, you really do want to be 100% sure. You don't state whether these are from marine, brackish or freshwater beds, or whereabouts you are in terms of local climate and geography. All this is important when trying to ID worms. Cheers, Neale.>

Re: Worm Identification       2/27/18
Thanks for the quick response Neale. I am in Galveston Texas, so on the coast. The Aquaponic system is freshwater (in greenhouse). There have been no fish in the system for over a year, they had a massive die off due to neglect. There has been constant aeration the entire time but no system pump. It is fed by rain water and I'm sure thee worms have been feeding off of the dead plant debris at the bottom of the tanks. I have attached a couple more photos and have tried to zoom in a little. I know it's hard but I live on a island with very little resources for identification and you were my last hope. They seem to vary in size as they move. the back end us usually the thickest and as they move they stretch out almost three to four times their body length. They are mostly brown but some of the smaller ones seem to be a bit grey/brownish. Thanks for whatever you can do or if you provide another way to go about identifying I would appreciate it!
<Understood. Some of the flatter brown worms with vague rounded ends look like carnivorous or scavenging leeches -- which despite the leech name are perfectly harmless and not the sort that bite people (in fact only a minority of leeches eat blood, and even fewer pose a risk to humans). The thinner, more tube-shaped ones are probably oligochates of some sort, related to earthworms, and again, almost certainly harmless. You could identify these two groups yourself with a hand-lens or microscope -- oligochaetes are segmented, taper to a point at each end, and have sparse bristles along their bodies. You quite probably examined an earthworm as a child, and maybe heard the bristles scratch against paper as the worm moved; I certainly did that at school. Leeches are segmented, lack the bristles, but do have distinctive suckers at each end used to hold themselves in place. They are mostly aquatic, and swim with a rather beautiful snake-like undulation that's quite lovely to watch. The other types of worms you're likely to see are nematodes and nematomorphs, both of which lack segments, but distinguishing these is a bit harder. Nematodes tend to be pointy at each end and otherwise featureless. Nematomorphs are often very long and thread-like. There are parasites among bother groups, which do have vectors that can move them about to the most unexpected places, so while the majority of species are harmless, you would want to get them identified professionally if you're involved in commercial food production. Hope this helps, Neale.>

Worms     1/20/18
Hello my name is Mehrr, and I've found these work like creatures in my fresh water tank. Could you please tell me what they are?
<Are these in your aquarium? Seems odd. These are maggots of some sort -- larvae of flies (i.e., Diptera) -- perhaps houseflies or blowflies.
Harmless, and most big fish will eat them very readily. They do not live underwater though, so more likely have fallen into the aquarium from above.
Cheers, Neale.>

Re: Worms
No, they were in my fresh water tank.
<Oh, I'm sorry, I'll issue a refund at once!>
It's a giant covered, concrete cylindrical structure used to store fresh water for domestic purposes.
<Not really what the volunteers here are expert in.>
Are they commonly found in such an environment?
<Maggots are terrestrial and must breathe air, but do prefer dark, damp environments with plenty of decaying organic material. Trash cans, compost heaps, rotting food are the sorts of environments they favour. Examine
where this tank is located and act accordingly. There are aquatic maggot-like animals of course, such as Rat-tailed maggots, that do live in swampy, polluted ponds and ditches, but they are very different in appearance to traditional Blow fly, House fly, and similar maggots. Cheers, Neale.>

Can you tell me what this is please???      7/9/17
Hello,
<Hi Kelly>
I am hoping you might be able to help me. I have indoor/outdoor cats and of course leave a water bowl out for them. Recently though I have been finding strange worm-like organisms stuck to the inside of the bowl. I've included a picture of one to show you. I would just like to know what it is and if it is harmful to animals. I appreciate you taking the time to read my email and thank you.
Kelly Michel
<Mmm; this looks like some sort of flatworm/Platyhelminth to me... Likely not an issue, but I would share this pic or better, specimen with your veterinarian just to make sure. Bob Fenner>

Re: Can you tell me what this is please???      7/9/17
Wow a flatworm?
<Yes; look in your reference works, the Net.>
Thank you very much for your help, and advice. I will be showing it to my veterinarian.
<Ah, good. BobF>