This is my first post here though I've been a lurker for a long time. Very helpful site! I have a RES, female, about 25 years old. I've personally had her for 15 of those years. She's large, about 12 inches long. Recently (this year) started having some difficulty eating (would go a few days without eating) but we cleared that up enticing her with tuna and then changing her food.
She's in a huge tank with a waterfall filtration system and seems to be doing well but we noticed something today when cleaning the tank. My boyfriend was cleaning the filter and inside on the padding he found black worms that were alive. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture. I was grossed out and had him throw it away without thinking. They were fully black, thin, very wriggly, and a little under an inch long. Upon further inspection we also found some inside of her fake log thing. It's old and there's a crack in it and he found some hiding in there. It's one of those logs you get at the pet store. Not really made of wood just made to look like a wood log.
Anyway, I'm just trying to figure out if she has parasites or if it could have been flying insect larvae. It's summer right now, very hot and muggy and buggy. Our screens in our windows suck so we do get flies and mosquitos and little moth things and whatnot. I tried doing some research online but didn't find a lot of info. I did see one person say they switched to a canister filter instead of the waterfall one and never had that problem again. I know the only way to rule out intestinal parasites is to take her to a vet but in addition to that I'm wondering if anyone here has any thoughts or advice?
Should we throw away the whole filtration system and get a whole brand new one? Should we boil all her stuff in hot water? Use bleach? If we use bleach how do we do that while keeping her safe? We don't use a cover on the tank because it's so big but maybe we should see if we can get one?
Any help would be appreciated. Like I said, she does seem fine otherwise. She's bright and alert and active and at the moment her appetite is good.
Thanks!
