Worm looking... thing

[tabkiel]

Hi people! Thanks so much for all the help in my last post!!

I came across another strange organism a while ago and once again I have no clue what he is. Some sort of worm, I'm guessing, but he doesn't look like a flatworm or a nematode, which only leaves us with annelids, which he also doesn't resemble... the little circle on the end of his body you see is his head and it seemed quite maleable and slightly pulsating (creepy). He was relatively big, you could see him with the naked eye if you knew he was there to begin with. I'd say around 1 or 2mm but it's a rough guess.

I attatched the images below, please let me know if you can't see them!!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ntm2A486zt28uEp59

Thanks so much,
~ Tenshi

[jmp]

Those are segmented worms (polychaete annelids) from the Aeolosomatidae family that live in freshwater, so you were close when you were thinking annelids. Look at these one:

https://visuzoologia.tumblr.com/post/49 ... agua-water

A bit more from the wikipaedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolosoma

And more info from an australian site:

https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/T ... tidae.html

I recently saw tons of these in a sample from a small pool of water from my backyard, feeding on plant debris. Population grew a lot in a few days, as mentioned in the site above this critters reproduce quickly by fission. Weird looking, quite active, fun to watch.

[tabkiel]

Those are segmented worms (polychaete annelids) from the Aeolosomatidae family that live in freshwater, so you were close when you were thinking annelids. Look at these one:

https://visuzoologia.tumblr.com/post/49 ... agua-water

A bit more from the wikipaedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolosoma

And more info from an australian site:

https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/T ... tidae.html

I recently saw tons of these in a sample from a small pool of water from my backyard, feeding on plant debris. Population grew a lot in a few days, as mentioned in the site above this critters reproduce quickly by fission. Weird looking, quite active, fun to watch.

Ohh, thank you!! That's definetively what I was looking at. I'll keep an eye out for any of his friends! They're very fun to watch indeed

~ Tenshi

[perrywespa]

Thanks, jmp, these look exactly like the worms I found in water in a flowerpot after a rain. See my post "Annelids?" from Aug 23, 2020. Now I know what they are!

[jmp]

Indeed several of these annelids appear in the image on your post, perrywespa. Here's the link to an impressive video of one Aeolosoma specimen, posted a while ago by another forum member: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7113&p=62921&hilit=Aeolosoma#p62921

[perrywespa]

Beautiful video! Thanks for the link.