Nematodes in pond?

I saw some tiny worm like things in the pond so I googled "pond worms" and found a pretty accurate discription of what I was looking at, ie - tiny worms moving in frantic 's' shaped motions. This a nematode or roundworm.

Are these normal? I don't have any fish yet. Will these be harmful to the fish once we get some? Are they harmful to pets or humans?

Hmm, so further exploration says roundworms are microscopic. So maybe that's not what these are afterall.

Any ideas? They don't look like mosquito larva.

We're gonna need a better description here......lots of things in pond sound like that. Are they red? Could be bloodworms, it's that time of year for sure, I've already started seeing them.

lol, yeah that was pretty vague. I was freaked out by the thought of having some horrible disease carrying parasite in the pond I was just up to my elbows in.

I'll see if I can get a picture.

If they are small red worms in your filter media, they are normal and just a part of every day pond life...no harm to the fish, they eat them for snacks, which is why you usually only see them in a protected area such as the filter sponges inside the filter casing.

Thank you both for responding.

I wasn't able to get a picture because it rained for a couple days and I now I'm not seeing any.

They weren't red at least not as red as the pictures I saw of blood worms on the web.

I'm inclined to think they may have been some midge larva that was in with some gravel I had recently put in the pond.

Thanks for the heads up about the blood worms though, I probably would have been back here asking about them when I found some for the first time :)

Maybe moysquiteo larve?-- sorry for bad spelling
Regards,
Rick

Hi flkoifarm,

They didn't have the typical polliwog look of mosquito larva.

Ugh..... are they all gone? if so...lol..... problem gone I hope. No pics?
Regards,
Rick