little wiggly white worm thingies?

[tbonem91]

So I was checking out my snail tank and there's these things on the glass... all over the glass - they're about the thickness of a hair, white and about 1/2 - 1 mm in length and they're crawling all over the place - there's got to be hundreds just on the front glass pane alone.

Here's the tank info:

5 gal bow
4 neon tetras (lost #5 somewhere...)
2 glassfish tetras?
3 apple snails
lots of trumpet and pond snails
bunch of anacharis (I think is the name of the plant)
roughly 78 degrees, hob filter, etc.

any clue what my wiggly worm guys are? and if they're a bad thing to have in there?

 

[tbonem91]

did some looking and I guess they're just "white worms" which means I need to clean my tank better. The problem is that there is a ton of plant material on the botom and also a lot of snails - I am breeding the snails to feed to my puffer fish and I dont want to syphon a bunch of them out... any ideas on a good way to clean this puppy out and keep a majority of my snails?

 

[Allivymar]

Welcome to the world of nematodes, hydra and planaria tbonem!

Heh, all three are harmless; hydra can grab teeny tiny fry tho, and there are nematodes which are deadly to fish, but the ones that show up in the tank aren't a hazard to em. Nematodes are usually thinner and more wormlike, planaria are a bit flat and have 2 eye spots, hydra have lil tentacles waving around on one end.

These guys (planaria and nematodes) show up when theres an abundunce of nutrients available. Best thing to do is to cut down on feedings, and gravel vaq frequently to remove any traces of debris in the substrate.

Hydra usually come in on plants. I found them a little harder to get rid of. I wound up bying a product called Panacur, which is actually a goat dewormer LOL It works great, and isn't dangerous to the fish, although I'd avoid using it in tanks with shrimp or crayfish/crabs. Not sure how it would affect the snails, as it blocks the metabolism in nematodes and the like. Basically they can eat, but can't digest and starve.

 

[William]

rather inhumane.. :?

 

[Allivymar]

*grin* Thats me William! I didn't invite em into the tank; tis what they get for gatecrashing

 

[Fruitbat]

Allivymar is correct....nematodes. Fortunately the vast majority of the nematodes we see in aquaria are harmless. Also correct about the cure....remove their food and they will slowly disappear.

The best cure for hydra, should you ever manage to get any in your tank, is the Blue Gourami, Trichogaster trichopterus. Put one in the tank...don't feed it....and it will eat your hydra like so much popcorn!

 

[Allivymar]

Duh. Thanx Fruitbat LOL I could have thought of a more natural way of getting rid of hydra before suggesting chemicals eh? Have a few kudos for pointing that one out!

 

[Fruitbat]

Nahhh Allivymar. While I avoid using chemicals as much as I can, I'm not religiously anti-chemical (obviously from many of my posts, eh?).

Most gouramis seem to like hydra. I've had especially good luck with Blue Gouramis but Pearl Gouramis will do the job almost as well.

 

[tabitha]

you know whats interesting about planeria? you can cut them in half and the head grows a tail and the tail grows a head... really weird we did it in biology

 

[tbonem91]

interesting stuff... I'll clean up my tank and see what happens. Thanks guys! (and girls)

 

[tbonem91]

saw a single hydra on my glass before cleaning the tank... pretty neat looking creature. Pretty sure I got rid of him though The white worm population has dropped significantly just thorugh a good water change and gravel vac. Again, thnx

 

[madasafish]

Oi. Inhumane? I guess you have to draw a line somewhere between viruses and humans... personally, I draw it right after yucky worms that line the walls of a tank and cockroaches. But that's just me...