General Care Discussion :: Nasty Yucky Red Worms!!

[orca_gurl12]

How big is your turtle? about 4 inches
How long have you had it? 7 months

What is the water temperature? 75 to maybe 80
Are you using a water heater? not currently, I live in Northern California and it is plenty warm in the house without a water heater even at night
How much water is in there? nearly 75 gallons
Are you using a water conditioner? yes, Reptisafe (I think by ZooMed)
Are you using any filtration? yes, an Eheim canister filter

What is the basking temperature? Not sure, but definetly the recommended 10 degrees warmer than the water
Is there a basking light? yes
Is there a basking platform that is easy to climb on? yes
What kind is it or what is it made out of? It is the zoomed basking ramp
Is there a UVB light? yes

What have you been trying to feed it? pellets, lettuces, cuttlebone, he has some anachris plants and I think he ate two guppies last week, there are currently 5 other fish in the tank too: 4 guppies, 1 Rosie Red; oh, and then there are two ghost shrimp too but he has never tried to eat them
When was the last time your turtle ate? This morning

How big is the tank/pond/enclosure? 75 gallon glass tank
Is the tank near a window? no
Is the tank in a room with a lot of activity? yes

Have you read the Basic Care section? yes
Have you searched the forums for similar situations? yes

Is there any other unusual activity/symptoms? he is acting totally normal


My turtle's shell is wrinkled and I keep think it is going to shed but it hasn't yet and his shell REALLY looks like it needs to shed. My main concern though is that I did a total water change yesterday because the water was extra messy from some live plants he tore apart a few weeks ago. While I was doing this I found tiny red worms not much bigger than a thread swimming in the water. I REALLY want to make sure he doesn't have worms, is there any way to tell?? He doesn't have any in his...umm..poo. I also found a bunch of snails but I think I got rid of all of them. I scrubbed the tank with white viniger and I left all of the tank decorations and rocks outside in the hot sun to kill the snail eggs. There were also little white underwater mite looking things too. What are those?? Well, I guess you could say that it must be healthy water if mites, worms, snails, and even the female guppy are all reproducing so well??

[SpotsMama]

On little red thread-like worms, there were some like that in Spot's tank once. Quite a lot of them actually. They got in the filter too. I think they were fly larvae. Spot had been living outside in a pond and I believe some eggs came in on him when I brought him inside for the winter. The flies weren't maturing inside (ie, I didn't have a plague of flies in the house) and after about 6 weeks all the worms were gone (died or were eaten by Spot). No more flies were laying eggs, so the worms weren't being replaced as they disappeared.

I haven't had a problem since. From my reading, I believe the worms were what the blood worm cubes you sometimes feed turtles were made of, so they were actually like a treat for him.

I'm not saying that's exactly what you have but it could be. Is there any way fly eggs could have gotten in your tank - maybe on the plants? Did you wash the plants before you put them in the tank?

I don't know about white underwater mites. Could they possibly be planeria - another type of worm? Planeria are pretty common in aquariums.

The only way to really know if your turtle has internal parasites is to have a stool sample checked by a vet. I don't think it would be very expensive to do this. It would probably be good for your peace of mind.

[marisa]

It sounds like the worms came in on the live plants you have in the tank (I've seen a few in one of my turtle's tanks as well), and are most likely planaria, which won't hurt your turtle. If you don't already, cleaning the anachris off and letting it soak in clean water for a few days before you put it in the tank will help cut down on snails and worms getting into the tank (but snails are especially hard to get rid of).

You could clean the tank well and not put in any anachris/aquatic plants for a while and see if the worms return. If they do, then you could take the next step of bringing a stool sample and your turtle to a herp vet.

As for the mites (you're sure they're mites), what does your turtle use for a basking area?

[orca_gurl12]

I took him to the vet and had a stool check and it came back okay! He had a total check up and the only thing wrong with him is still his shell. It has always been a little deformed but the vet gave me a vitamin and mineral supplement that will hopefully take care of it eventually.

[SpotsMama]

Does the supplement contain vitamin E?

[orca_gurl12]

I'm not sure if it contains vitamin E. I know it has vitamin D and a little calcium, but I still feed him cuttlebone and he still has his UVB light so he can make his own vitamin D. Why do you ask about the vitamin E though?

[marisa]

A lack of Vit E is thought to contribute to a turtle having difficulty shedding scutes. If you look at some of the more reputable turtle pellets, though, it's one of the ingredients included in the product.

[orca_gurl12]

I feed him reptomin, do you know if that has vitamin E? He hasn't shed since early spring and you can totally see that there are old scutes on top that are small and the under scutes are much larger but the little ones are not coming off at all.

[marisa]

I believe it does---look at the ingredients. Some mfgrs list it as "Vit E Supplement," sometimes it's listed as alpha-tocopheryl acetate, or a similar form. I sometimes feed my turtles Reptomin, along with Mazuri and a few other brands of pellets.

It sounds like he's got more scutes to shed. Basking under proper lighting (UVB and heat lights) and getting him outside for direct sunlight will also help with scute shedding.