swimmin' white worms??

[mendhigirl]

Okay...I just got done changing 20% of the water in my 40g (gravel vac,rinse filters)....NOW I have white worms swimming in my tank?????

They are about 1/4 inch long,very very thin,and what on Earth are they??

Where could they have come from??My tap water??

I have no live plants--no live food--no new fish in over a year--all of my tanks have separate equipment.I vac the gravel weekly,20% water change bi-weekly,feed the fishes once every other day,no leftovers.

My BIG question is....how do I get RID of them?Are they harmful?

Had a springtail problem last month..wet/dry vac got rid of those suckers...but they were never IN my tank...just living on the lid.
Oh please oh please help.....
mendhigirl

 

[ConanTheLibraia]

They shouldnt be harmful. The ones you have to worry about are the ones that burrow under the gravel or latch onto your fish and they normally come out at night. I have no idea how they could have gotten into your aquarium, and they should not have been in the tap water. All I can think of is that one got into your gravel vac and layed eggs or somthing and got reintroduced into your tank. To get rid of this type of worm you can put a trap in your tank there are certian commercially available ones, others you can make yourself.

 

[mendhigirl]

Hi Conan,
I think they did come from under the gravel. I don't see them now..but I think they may have settled into the gravel,and maybe some got sucked into the filters.They didn't bother the fish,and weren't on them at all.
I have no clue how they got in there,I never saw them before,and I have separate equipment for each tank,so I don't introduce anything icky,or cross contaminate,incase one of the fishies come down with something,I won't lose them all.Just in case. Does everyone keep separate equipment...or am I just paranoid??

 

[littlelouie]

Hi mendhigirl, I had noticed this problem in my original tank of which I kept 5 White Clouds, 1 goldfish and a bristlenose catfish (pleco) during the warmer mths the tank temp = 25 deg cel.

Suddenly the goldfish died with no visible signs (to me anyway) and I did a water change, gravel vac, filter change etc and as the goldfish was gone I added a heater so as to keep the temp stable through the winter mths for the pleco. The water after the change was a little stirred up still and I noticed these thread-like worms (similar to your description) and didn't think much about them.

Well...as the temp rose to 26-27 deg I noticed the thread-like things had settled but the fish all looked less than active. On closer inspection some of them were gasping for air with their gills doing db time flapping fast and the pleco had a small pin head sized red spot near his tail. It was easter so no shops were open to get advice so I went onto the internet and looked for any info but none found. (I had not heard of this site/forum at that point).

The next morning the fish were all dead and the pleco actually had these thread-like things attached near the red spot.

The tank was completely emptied and re-started. Everything was replaced gravel etc. I kept a ceramic log which was washed thoroughly.

No one has been able to tell me what they were or where they came from, some tell me they are harmless and others say they were parasites but not one person agreed with the other :x

I hope that others who have experienced this problem give their stories so we may find a reason and a solution to the problem.

I have since re-setup my tank as a tropical and will be checking back on this topic regularly.

rgds
Louise

 

[emorrison33]

I am not sure what they are called, but they are a parasite (although I haven't seen them in your tank). I have found that they tend to be present when temps are low in a tank, from lack of light and/or infrequent water changes. Water changes seem to add to thier reproduction if using municipal water (Try RO water). Try raising the temperature in the tank...this will speed up their life cycle. Also the addition of some aquarium salt should help eleviate the problem, and keep PH levels at 7.0. They can do alot of damage to fish (i.e. breathing problems) so immediate action is needed. Check with your Local Fish Store for possible medicines you can add to kill them off. It has been awhile since I have had this problem in my tanks, so I don't remember which medicine works best.

 

[hisc1ay]

I have had them for a while. There was one point where they seemed to be more abundant, but every once in a while I see the occasional one. They kinda wriggle through the water, kinda like a sidewinder snake. I heard fry like to eat them. I determined that they were plenaria, and they haven't hurt my fish.

One way to keep their population down is to lower your feedings for a little while. They grow off of extra food that doesn't get eaten. I did that, and it helped.

That is, if we have the same worms in mind.

-j

 

[littlelouie]

I agree with hisclay as the worms don't harm when the tank is settled (not stirred up) but be wary when you vac and stir up the gravel. I think the mass amount of worms can hurt your fish if they're out numbered.

Watch your amts of food as this is a contributing factor to the volumes of worms. My clown loach appears to eat a lot of diff. things and I guess he's getting the worms too.

Louise

 

[harios]

I have this prob too i think they are planaria flatworms which are members of the Platyhelminthes phylum. they should not be harmful to ur fish. they come from too much substrate with too much junk in it. i recommend removing ur fish washing ur gravel and then replacing ur fish and adding quick cure. its what i did and it worked. but watch out this is very stressful to ur fish

 

[the Ents]

hi all,
we have the same thing going on described at length in
http://aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?p=47646
any further ideas? some of the posts are scaring us - don't wnt to wake up to al our fish dead.
arggh!

 

[TankGirl]

i recommend removing ur fish washing ur gravel and then replacing ur fish and adding quick cure.

I would be very careful about removing your gravel all at once. This will often cause a mini-cycle, which is very stressful. (I know, I did it!) I had these worms once and just stepped up my water changes to about 15% every day for a week, and cut back on feeding.

 

[tkos]

They are nemotodes. They are harmless and come from excess nutrients. Pretty much all freshwater tanks have them. Reduce feeding for awhile and keep using the gravel vacuum. Fish do like to eat them. Don't remove all the gravel as they will just come back anyway.