White worms in isopod culture

[calliew311]

I recently started keeping 2 cultures of isopods. I got them from Fear Not Tarantulas during the 12 days of Christmas. Well, I went to feed them today and there are tiny small, long and short worms near the top of the soil in BOTH cultures. I live in Nevada and maybe have been keeping the enclosure a little too moist since these species are kind of moisture dependant. It's filled with Reptisoil.
I searched tiny white worms in isopod culture and several people said they could be nematodes. Just that word freaked me out. But from the isopod world, apparently, these aren't bad. I realize there's a ton of different types of nematodes, and most aren't predatory to my Tarantulas. But how am I supposed to know the difference? And should this enclosure go into isolation? It's on my Tarantulas' shelving unit. I'll try to post pics of the shelves and the worms. I'm going to remove the isopods from the T's just in case. Please help!

 

[SpookySpooder]

Hard to identify anything without a microscope, so better safe than sorry I think. Quarantine them.

 

[catboyeuthanasia]

Pic is top blury, but I'll give some Possible things they can be:

- Fungus gnat larvae. Harmless, but ugly. These guys sometimes show up in new or moist enclosures. Shouldn't really bother anyone, but they are annoying

- most free-living nematodes are harmless soil detritovores, and since they are in the open, they are probably safe. This is a giant phylum of life, so some Parasitic ones exist

- land planaria. These are nasty pieces of work that I have seen take out adult isopods. If the worms have a pointy, wiggly, head, and a black dot at the middle of their bodies, then they might be these things. Some people here keep them as pets, but I personally don't care for them. If you live in North America, they are probably Rhynchodemus sylvaticus

 

[catboyeuthanasia]

Glitch double reply, but these are probably not land planaria, since they are thinner and smaller than those usually are.

 

[calliew311]

Pic is top blury, but I'll give some Possible things they can be:

- Fungus gnat larvae. Harmless, but ugly. These guys sometimes show up in new or moist enclosures. Shouldn't really bother anyone, but they are annoying

- most free-living nematodes are harmless soil detritovores, and since they are in the open, they are probably safe. This is a giant phylum of life, so some Parasitic ones exist

- land planaria. These are nasty pieces of work that I have seen take out adult isopods. If the worms have a pointy, wiggly, head, and a black dot at the middle of their bodies, then they might be these things. Some people here keep them as pets, but I personally don't care for them. If you live in North America, they are probably Rhynchodemus sylvaticus

So, I'm thinking they are nematodes, just the non T threatening type. If they were fungus gnats, I did the trick of letting the enclosure dry out and put potato slices in there and when I removed them, nothing happened, which if they were FG, they prob would've been clinging onto the potato.
They are really thin, like think of a medium sized ball point pen, and drawing a line, they are half or less, thinner than that line. Some are small, but most are about 1/2 inch or longer. I noticed there are less, since I let the terrarium dry out. Though, I can't let it fully dry out because of the isopods. And I saw some mancae or baby isopods. And they slightly dig, or so I've heard.
I'm waiting for my BioDude substrate to come in, and I will change them over. This bag was Reptisoil, and although I've never seen anyone have trouble with Reptisoil, idk what to say, that's all I had, so, that's what I put in there.

I'm also attaching a full enclosure setup for each and a closer pic of the long gross things. Lol. Though I know you weren't the one asking for the whole enclosure set up. Thanks for the answer.

 

[Theraphosphor]

They look like nematodes to me.

 

[calliew311]

Ok, that's what I thought, but there are hundreds or thousands of types of nematodes. Not all are harmful to Tarantulas. Are you saying this kind of nematode is harmful to Tarantulas?

If so, how did I get them? Do you have an idea?

 

[Theraphosphor]

Ok, that's what I thought, but there are hundreds or thousands of types of nematodes. Not all are harmful to Tarantulas. Are you saying this kind of nematode is harmful to Tarantulas?

If so, how did I get them? Do you have an idea?

If I had to guess, they could have already been in the culture when you got it. I have no clue what kind of nematodes they are. I'll defer to the others on what to do.

 

[grndjmpr03]

Not a nematode expert, but they look almost exactly like the pot worms I have in my dwarf white vivarium. Totally harmless detritivores that I've caught eating pod poop.

 

[calliew311]

Not a nematode expert, but they look almost exactly like the pot worms I have in my dwarf white vivarium. Totally harmless detritivores that I've caught eating pod poop.

Ok. Thanks. Idk what pod poop looks like, so, I haven't seen them eating it. But, I've moved my pods to a new enclosure with BioDude substrate. I was just too worried about my T's, and they (the worms) gross me out. Lol.
Do you know how your dwarf white colony ended up with them? Do you think it was the substrate? Like there may have been eggs in there already and they hatched under the correct environment? Thx again!

 

[The Snark]

The word nematode is analogous to the term 'tree' or 'bush' or 'rock'. Described while telling you next to nothing.

 

[grndjmpr03]

Ok. Thanks. Idk what pod poop looks like, so, I haven't seen them eating it. But, I've moved my pods to a new enclosure with BioDude substrate. I was just too worried about my T's, and they (the worms) gross me out. Lol.
Do you know how your dwarf white colony ended up with them? Do you think it was the substrate? Like there may have been eggs in there already and they hatched under the correct environment? Thx again!

The dwarf whites have been doing great with them so far. I watch them a lot and they'll just walk/crawl next to each other without an issue, even the mancae. No direct interaction (yet), just coexisting. They or their eggs were just in the substrate to begin with since I bought it prebuilt and haven't added anything new.

Edit: Solid chance they were in the substrate and the moisture encouraged them to come up to the surface. Also even though they're harmless to isopods idk anything about how they'd be with tarantulas.

 

[calliew311]

The dwarf whites have been doing great with them so far. I watch them a lot and they'll just walk/crawl next to each other without an issue, even the mancae. No direct interaction (yet), just coexisting. They or their eggs were just in the substrate to begin with since I bought it prebuilt and haven't added anything new.

Edit: Solid chance they were in the substrate and the moisture encouraged them to come up to the surface. Also even though they're harmless to isopods idk anything about how they'd be with tarantulas.

Thx. I did look this up when I was confused about what it was. Many isopod owners said almost the exact same thing you did. That they were just part of a natural clean up crew, prob came in the substrate, and weren't harmful isopods.
The only time I've ever heard about nematodes is through the Tarantula hobby and those nematodes will literally kill your T. Now, as someone else said, saying nematode is like describing something as a rock or tree, because there are thousands of types, and idk how many are harmful or non harmful they are to tarantulas. So, these ones prob are ok, but I couldn't take the chance. So, I bought BioDude substrate and changed over the adults and mancae I could easily find without transferring soil. That was difficult. But I kept the original soil for any mancae I missed and can maybe get once they grow a bit. But I'm throwing the soil away once I think I got all of the pods out.