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Phew! Funny how the conversation started off as something completely different, id'ing worms, to something that lead to identifying a possible issue with the health of the tank. Go Team!

Bloody mary are not a grade of shrimp, but a color, just like blue dreams and chocolates. They may have their *OWN* color grading, but I haven't seen much in regards to a specific grading for them. That said, a high grade bloody mary is likely to have solid red legs and dark coloration. FR/PRF are opaque shrimp that you can't see through. BM glow like a ruby and it can be difficult to get their true colors to appear in pictures. It's easiest to appreciate them in person. There is no "blue" cherries, but there are many blue varieties... and trying to define the blues is a headache.... for example, Blue Velvet in the USA are supposed to be Blue Bodied Red Rili's without the red coloration but babies may show some red when they are young. Imported Blue Velvets on the other hand come from the black line. Many blue diamond shrimp may be blue shrimp that may or may not have carbon rili coloration, but they are not blue carbon rilis. Blue carbon rilis are a lighter blue in coloration. Blue Dreams are usually without black coloration. I'm not entirely sure how imported Blue Velvets fit in here... unless they are actually Blue Dreams by another name. It gets really confusing, especially when you come across shrimp labeled as "Dream Blue Velvet" or "Blue Dream Diamond". Like, which is it? And there are these charts here.... but I don't know how accurate they are. Further DNA analyse may be required to determine if all shrimp currently labeled as Neocaridina davidi are actually one species or if they might be separate species In short, there is no world-wide grading for all the different colors. The only thing everyone can agree on is the grading system for low grade cherries to high grade cherries - aka Painted Fire Reds... and what a bloody mary is, a chocolate, a carbon/black rose, a rili (pattern type) and..... that's about it. There are at least 3 different names for different yellows, at least two different types of oranges (and I hate the name given to one orange type!), at least two types of greens (I'll never be able to think of green jades without also thinking about one with ellobiopsidae/green fungus but seller swearing USA bred shrimp not from imported stock and it's berried.... oh, and seller is a fish vet? supposedly certified, but seems self proclaimed... -shrugs-), who knows how many varieties of blues... and some people will sell low grade blue of one variety as a different variety of shrimp... as an example, if Blue Dreams are bred from Blue Diamonds, and someone has a colony of Blue Diamonds, they might sell the culls as Blue Dreams even though they aren't *really* Blue Dreams. You can look up a chart (not sure where it may be here) for grading cherry shrimp, which should be able to give you an idea of how to grade other colors. Back to subject of bloody mary... the best ones I've seen are actually from another member of this forum. Compared to bloody mary from another member.... they are still nice looking shrimp (again, pictures do not do them justice!) but you can tell that they aren't quite as good by at least comparing the legs.

Well, as soon as I read your previous post and responded I went into check on the shrimp. I have noticed that they had been a bit lethargic for a few days so I was worried after you said there was possibly low oxygen in the water. The only adult shrimp in the tank was dead when I went in there. So, I decided to take all of the shrimp out of the tank, replace 100% of the water, and clean the gravel with the hottest water out of my tap several times over to get rid of any worms. I’m sure I didn’t kill every single one of them, but their numbers would be drastically reduced. I’m sad that I didn’t make it in time for my little orange male. The babies are happy again and swimming all around the tank. Thank you so much for your advice as it may have saved many of them from dying in the next few days.

You could try putting the hose down into the sand for just a moment, enough to kick up the sand, then pull it back up so there's not enough suction to really pull at the sand... or maybe try stirring up the sand before vacuuming it? Only time I ever had these was in a tank I picked up from someone else. After removing the last remaining shrimp that the previous owner didn't take out (probably a week old or less), I put kuhli loaches and a pygmy cory (picked up with the tank... there was only one) into the tank. That was the last time I saw them.

Your description and picture definitely shows that these are detritus worms, not nematode or planaria. Good job id'ing them @zoidburg. If you are not too bothered by them, just leave them as is. They are not harmful, and are great decomposters. When you see them outside of the substrate, waving around, then you know their numbers have increased beyond the capability to cope for oxygen in the gravel. This is where you need to start removing them, as oxygen depletion in the tank will start impacting the shrimps or fishes. A simple gravel vac should be all you need at this point.

Sounds like detritus worms. Sometimes they'll pop their heads out of the gravel and "wave" around. Or if they go swimming, they swim like a snake. Their head is stable and pointed in one direction while their body slowly curves back and forth.

Ok nicpapa I'll take it down a bit more if that's the case, today I've seen two crystal berried so it's definitely working