Parasite worms in moss?

[choco]

Hi all,

Was checking the margie eggs that I've been expecting to hatch soon. I've got them in a sealed tub of moss with airholes, inside a tank with other snails in it. On checking, one snail seems to be hatching, but on closer inspection I noticed lots and lots of tiny tiny white-ish worms in the moss and all over the eggs. I took the eggs out to wash them off before putting them in fresh moss, and noticed that several eggs seemed to have tiny pinprick holes in them. On very gently chipping at them, I established that unfortunately most of the eggs had failed to develop or the snails had died early on in their development. It looks like I only have one live snail from this batch and I am uncertain if he'll survive.

I can only assume that the worms were predators of some kind that have killed the snail fetuses inside the eggs or in some other way caused them to fail to develop. Does anyone have any experience of this, or any idea how the worms could have come to be in the moss? My other tanks that have moss all seem to be unaffected. Has anyone ever noticed anything like tiny worms in their tanks?

Some good news, though, is that the second batch of eggs I have seem to be fine with no signs of parasites or worms of any kind, and I also found another batch of ten eggs in the bottom of the big margie tank

[Alisha]

Oh no!
I hope the others survive and your lonely little fella makes it!

[stixandsnailsyork]

Hi choco I have some eggs i bought from a seller on ebay i checked the eggs the other day to find the same a hatching egg i thought yes great another baby only to find little white worms in it along with an empty shell, I wondered if the parent of the eggs was carrying the worm but only one of my eggs was affected that i knew of but if they are also in your eggs it cant be from the parent, Then i cleand one of my tanks out today and noticed them in that as well so i thought maybe coming in on the food but that dosen't explaine why they are in the eggs.
I would love to know where they came from I don't have any moss in the tank i found them in also i think if they were in the moss they would be in most tanks I have 2 tanks and a couple of hatching tanks on moss and have only found them in 1 hatching tank and in 1 tank with just coir.

I hope you baby pulls through.

[AlienSnail]

Oooh! No I've ne ver heard of this, that's bad! I'll try and look it up online....

[AlienSnail]

Could it be possible that the eggs had died of other causes and the worms simply feed off decaying matter?

I can't find anything on the internet - well not so far anyay.

[choco]

Should have said in my original post - the sphagnum moss I use is dried bricks which I add water to, I assumed that meant that it was sterile.

If you have the same things without moss, Stix, maybe it's something else - possibly the larvae of a fly or other bug that may have got into the tanks? But then why would the worms be in the moss in a hatching tub, but nowhere to be found in the tank that the tub is in. Very strange

[choco]

Jun 14, 2010 20:34:47 GMT AlienSnail said:

Could it be possible that the eggs had died of other causes and the worms simply feed off decaying matter?

I can't find anything on the internet - well not so far anyay.

It's entirely possibly that the eggs just failed to develop anyway and the worms are a coincidence. But I still find it weird that the worms were in the hatching tub but not the main tank that the tub was in, and also that the eggs had tiny tiny pinprick holes in them as if the worms had burrowed into them. It could be that the worms pierced the eggs after the snails had died (or that the holes are from something else), but it seems suspicious.

[AlienSnail]

Yes I agree it's suspicious.

xx

[stixandsnailsyork]

I don't use it as a brick form as i have never seen it any where i buy all of mine from a seller on ebay I cant understand why i have them in 1 hatching tank out of 4 and in 1 big snail tank out of about 15 none of the tanks round them have them in surely if it was a fly lavae they would be in more of the tanks. I have disposed of every thing that was in the hatching tank and have cleaned the snails out and bathed the snails WELL that were in the tank if i find them again i will keep some in a seperate tub away from all snails and other critters to see what they turn into if any thing.