Worms in the water dish

[CentaurChilopoda]

Hi,
as the title says. I was feeding my emperor, misting, filling his water dish etc. , when I noticed some strange tiny white worms in the water bowl. They were feeding on some spagnum moss pieces that fell in and were rather shy of light when I looked at them with a microscope, which makes me believe they're nematodes or at least not parasitic. I imagine they got in, as I started switching from crickets to locusts as feeders, who I fed with blackberry leafs from outside. But I'm still a little sceptic since some of the locusts have died mysteriously, in spite of everything provided. My scorpion has also acted a bit odd for the past year or so, refusing food, attacking my tweezers instead of prey items and overall lethargic, but I don't believe it to be anything serious or at least not related to the worms, as I still find excrements regularly and he doesn't appear ill or weak. Anyhow, sorry that the microscope pictures are of such poor quality, I do not posess an appropriate camera for my model and had to take them with my phone.

 

[birdonfire]

Could these be just free-living aquatic nematodes that feed on decomposing organic matter? But how they get in? Maybe somewhere in this paper: ("The ability to get everywhere: dispersal modes of free-living, aquatic nematodes") https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10750-020-04373-0

 

[The Snark]

Nematodes. An extremely broad phylum. In this instance, academic. They could be herbivorous, or opportunists. They can also live in hosts yet not be parasitic but consume the food the host animal eats. Numerous nematodes of all flavors are aquatic.

 

[CentaurChilopoda]

Could these be just free-living aquatic nematodes that feed on decomposing organic matter? But how they get in? Maybe somewhere in this paper: ("The ability to get everywhere: dispersal modes of free-living, aquatic nematodes") https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10750-020-04373-0

Skimmed through the paper but no conclusive answers. Best I could find was this: "According to Fontaneto (2019), the successful long-range dispersal of meiobenthic sized organisms requires, inter alia, the presence of propagules and the long-term resistance of these dispersal units. Propagules are especially relevant to dispersal outside the water (e.g., wind drift) (Panov et al., 2004; Nkem et al., 2006; Incagnone et al., 2015). For nematodes, dormant eggs, dauer larvae and stages of anhydrobiosis that facilitate resistance to high temperature, frost, desiccation and digestion (see the “Endozoochory” section) for periods partly as long as several decades (van Gundy, 1965; Watanabe, 2006; Mayer & Sommer, 2011) are of particular importance (Fontaneto, 2019)."
Still doesn't answer how they got in. As I mentioned it might have been his prey items. They may have also entered by way of other insects, as I usually leave a small gap at the opening of the enclosure open, so that I can keep the heat mat on a thermosthat, which is connected by cable. Otherwise I also had to gut one of my potted plants and spread the leafs out on the substrate to look more like an actual rainforest.

 

[CentaurChilopoda]

Nematodes. An extremely broad phylum. In this instance, academic. They could be herbivorous, or opportunists. They can also live in hosts yet not be parasitic but consume the food the host animal eats. Numerous nematodes of all flavors are aquatic.

Ah, well thanks for the reply. If he was somehow infected, that would, of course, be increddibly sad. I had plans for breeding with him and emperors are (at least in europe) scarcely bred and incredibly expensive. Disregarding all of that it would also be saddening to know him in such an unpleasant state and he is, to me at least much more than a collectible (unlike how some others view their animals) But trying to play doctor would probably do more harm than good. Most vets in my area know next to nothing about arthropods and the experience would be little more than unescessary stress, for somethinh that I don't even nescessarily know to be the case.

 

[The Snark]

You may have nothing to worry about. As for how they get into places, as one example, dogs pass around nematodes, round worms, just from sniffing each others butts. Feces of any animal is another common source of infection.

 

[CRX]

Yep, nematodes.