Worms In my Frogs Water

[Roboticboredom]

Okay so i am watching the pacific tree frogs hop around an eat fruit flys and crickets i notice these clear white worms in my frogs "pond" water.

I am fairly new to this whole naturalistic self sustaining terrarium thing - but i am trying. I have a 20 gal tall type set up - i have about 1qt pond down at one end - it has some river rocks that i got out of my yard and soaked and washed off really well and then some plants (bambooo and some tropical plant) to help filter the water... its really not deep or that much water so i am having trouble fiding a way to filter it and i just clean it out every couple weeks. the frogs tend to poop on the moss and plants and not in the water so it doesnt get that dirty - but they do go in the water alot, they hide down under a rock for a while and then hang out floating next to a rock... they seemto like it in there. So i was mildly disturbed to find these worms.

There seem to be two diff types one is REALLY thin almost microscopic if it were any thinner and clear, kind of whitish and about .5 -1.5 cm long.
the other ones are a little thicker and faster moving and about .5cm long. you can actualy tell where the head is on the fatter ones. The thin ones i thought were just some weird stringy dirt in the water at first.

both worms stay on the glass or rocks and dont swim at all, they will stay on a rock and eat stuff off the surface... or at least thats what i think they are doing.

and i just went back to look and there are little swimming white specs too... again almost microscopic... i know "wild" frogs (which mine were prior to them hopping onto my window and me catching them) swim in streams which have all kinds of fun water creatures - i just dont want them to be exposed to parasites and harmful stuff or concentrated populations of these things. reguardless even if they are not harmful i'm not to happy about worms in the water.

frustrating! i tried really hard to get this to be mostly self sufficient, naturalistic and clean and really would rather NOT go the water dish route.

sorry this is so long. any help would be appreciated and i just need toknow if i should evacuate the frogs permenantly.

[JohnEDove]

You might do a Google search for pics of planaria worms and see if that is what you have.

[Roboticboredom]

yeah thats them... dammit.
well back to cleaning - i am going to go get some bleach and some nitrile gloves. GROSS. They dont hurt frogs right? because it said they dont hurt fish so i am guessing its the same.
i hate worms. any ideas on filtering this pond so i dont get these guys again. aside from something custome built i cant find anything small enough, its only like and 1.5 inches deep at the most.

UPDATE

i cleaned everything and no more worms... still if anyone has filter ideas id be more than happy if u would share!!!

[Green Ghost]

Originally Posted by Roboticboredom

...I have a 20 gal tall type set up - i have about 1qt pond down at one end - it has some river rocks that i got out of my yard and soaked and washed off really well and then some plants (bambooo and some tropical plant) to help filter the water... its really not deep or that much water so i am having trouble fiding a way to filter it and i just clean it out every couple weeks. ...

How do you usually clean it out? Siphon the water out and replace with fresh?

Originally Posted by Roboticboredom

...well back to cleaning - i am going to go get some bleach and some nitrile gloves. ...

Wow, Did you end up tearing down the whole tank? If you did sorry to hear that....

[Roboticboredom]

Yeah i just take the rocks and aquatic plants out and clean out the "pond" end, i have it separated with plexi glass and aquarium sealant. so i had my frogs out, bleached the pond, rinsed it and dried it. It wasnt that much work, just tedious.I was trying to get some pics uploaded but this computer is weird.

I made it so that the pond isnt tied into the "water table" / drainage part...
figuring since i was no pro that this kind of stuff would happen.

I use the pond cleaning and taking them out to feed them wax worms.
its like their monthy out to the ice cream store... well equivilant in frog world maybe?

thanks forall the help.iam just glad those things didnt hurt my froggies.

[Roboticboredom]

[Green Ghost]

Good. At least you didn't have to tear everything down. Me, I stay away from bleach because I find it hard to get rid of entirely. Suggestion: maybe use some aquarium water dechlorinator before adding your frogs back in there. For the next time (hopefully never) just dry out the water area completely and it should kill off the planar worms. Warm water also drowns worms. There's also a third way using dry ice.

So where's the piston and connecting rod from? Import or domestic?

[Roboticboredom]

Its from my friends ford focus that he blew up the engine on... i helped tow him back and make repairs so i got one of the last intact pistons... he had a cold air intake and was driving through a puddles. lol

[Green Ghost]

hehehe.. I always thought the focus sounded like a vaccuum cleaner, anyway