Worm like creature ID

Hi,

Have just bought a house which has small garden at the back. There is an old tin bath sunk into the ground which the previous owners had been using as a pond. The water was pretty bad, green and full of stuff from the bush that grows above the pond so i decided to get rid of the old water and put some new water in hoping something may come to live there next year.

I was using a bucket to get the old water out and was pouring it over the borders to give the plants some water. After a while i noticed these worm like creatures in the water which i was pouring on the plants. There are hundreds of them in the pond, they are between 1 and 2 inches long, the same pink colour as worms but quite a bit fatter. They are all dead too (or they dont move at all) and smell a bit fishy.

I called my mum and she said that she once had leaches in her pond but I cant work out what they would have been eating if they were leaches. They are all also not decomposed at all even though they all seem dead but maybe the water has kept them fresh?

Sorry this is such a long and rambling post but does anyone have any idea what they are? Thanks in advance.

 

http://www.wildsideguides.co.uk/nwt.htm Have a look at this link for a few garden pond dwellers - they do sound like some kind of pupa to me though, & there's always plenty for them to eat - i.e. microscopic forms of life.

 

thanks, they look most like the leeches on there but i'm not comnvinced they are definitley leeches. Will try and get a photo later i think.

 

might not be as interesting as i thought, a friend who had a look reckons they are just slugs that have fallen in and drowned. There are loads of them though but i remember putting dishes out in my mums garden and loads of slugs would be drowned in them the next day. At least they are not eating the plants i suppose!

 

I think I'll get an old tin bath

Signed slughater :D [ just noticed that's an anagram[?] for slaughter!]

 

As long as there not snakes

 

They sound like blood worms to me, non stinging midge larvae. Fish love them.

 

I've had an old tin bath (small) in the garden for a bit whilst I'm doing my DIY work. I thought it would attract wildlife, but like Andy I found it just went green and stinky and was populated with drowned snails!! I thought all the wildlife gardeners recommended it?