How To Get Rid Of Hair Worms… Why Would You Want To? – 09/14/07
Hey guys,
<Hi Josh, you've got one of the gals tonight.>
I have done some looking on your website and it appears that what I have in my tank are hair worms. They are about 1-2 inches long, about as thick as hair, and white and kinda fuzzy toward the ends. I've read that they are completely harmless, so I'm not worried about them hurting anything, but they are multiplying like crazy. I started with just a couple that I believe came in on a frogspawn I bought. Now I have roughly 25-30 of them in a 9-gallon tank!
<Lucky you!>
There are a lot of them on one particular rock near my zoas and they are constantly brushing them causing them to close up.
<I wouldn't be too concerned. I doubt the zoas are suffering.>
Is there anything that eats these guys or anything I can do to get rid of them?
<Oh, I would discourage you from doing this. These are quite beneficial to your system and have many predators, so you are lucky to have them. Predators include hermit crabs, cleaner shrimp and many nipping fish.>
It's a little unattractive to have 25-30 white strands of hair blowing around all in your tank.
<Perhaps a little relocation?>
Thanks for everything,
<Welcome! Mich>
Josh

Strange worms in California about a foot long and really skinny!
I found a bunch of worms that looked like squirming skinny strings.  they are less than a 16th of an inch in diameter and one was almost a foot long...they were slender and their diameter was constant from one end to the other...it didn't even seem like they had a head or anything. do you have any idea of what it is??  They were found in Poso Creek in California in the County of Kern...they were in the leaves along a sandy creek that just started to run....I can send a photo if you want me to...
Thanks,
Sam
<Please do send a pic... Do these worms have any apparent bristles or other identifying structures? Is there a definite banded area near the "head" end? Sounds like some sort of oligochaete to me (a setae-less annelid/segmented worm) which does not narrow this down much. Same group as the common "nightcrawler, earthworms, Tubifex... Bob Fenner>

Re: strange worms in California about a foot long and really skinny!
thanks so much for the quick response!
After I had sent you the question i found out what it was later...it's common name is the "horsehair worm".....some have been found up to two feet long I guess...
they have an incredibly interesting life cycle......sort of scary actually!
Thanks for the help and take care
Sam
<Neat! The phylum Nematomorpha... not often seen. Thanks for sending this update. Bob Fenner>