Tiny Worm like Creatures?

[shellieca]

I was just looking at my 46g tank & I see this tiny little worm like creature so I smashed it with my finger. Upon closer inspection the are numerous ones mainly on both ends of the tank on the glass. I attempted to get a pic but they just come out like specs in the glass. They appear white & super super tiny. My tank has been running since July 6th, fully cycled, 1 (used to be 2) mystery snails, 2 CAE's, 4 female Bettas (had 5 until last Fri.), medium planted, temp stays about 80. I haven't tested the water today but Friday night they were ammo 0, nitrites 0, nitrates ~20. Last water change was Friday ~50%, I used Prime, added Flourish & Excel. So, should I be worried for my fish?

 

[Chiroptera]

They're probably something called planaria, a tiny flatworm that shows up everywhere when you feed too much. Cut down your feeding and make sure when you do water changes, you vaccum up leftover waste and food very well. Planaria are also a good warning sign that your Nitrates may go up, so if you want to do a water change soon, that would be good. It may take a couple weeks of feeding less and good vaccums to get rid of them.

What you need to do is really watch your fish. If ANY food hits the bottom and doesn't get eaten, (also if it gets spit up - bettas have a horrible habit of spitting up pellets once they're full, a couple minutes after you finish feeding) then you're overfeeding, and that's great food for Planaria.

They're not harmful at all. In fact, your fish may eat them. The only thing that's harmful is the level spikes that the overfeeding may cause.

 

[shellieca]

They're probably something called planaria, a tiny flatworm that shows up everywhere when you feed too much. Cut down your feeding and make sure when you do water changes, you vaccum up leftover waste and food very well. Planaria are also a good warning sign that your Nitrates may go up, so if you want to do a water change soon, that would be good. It may take a couple weeks of feeding less and good vaccums to get rid of them.

What you need to do is really watch your fish. If ANY food hits the bottom and doesn't get eaten, (also if it gets spit up - bettas have a horrible habit of spitting up pellets once they're full, a couple minutes after you finish feeding) then you're overfeeding, and that's great food for Planaria.

They're not harmful at all. In fact, your fish may eat them. The only thing that's harmful is the level spikes that the overfeeding may cause.

Thank you. When I feed the Bettas I drop a pellet at a time to make sure they get eaten. The only food that sits a little bit are the algae wafers. I'll try feeding every other day instead of fasting only day a week. I did my last water change on Friday so it was recent & I vacuum pretty good, but I do have plants so some spaces I can't get to as well as I'd like. I'll do a water test this afternoon & see what my current parameters are. Thank you again.

 

[shellieca]

Well I tested my water; ammo 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 40. I did a water change & vacuumed good, amazing how much crap there is after only 2 days & only 1 feeding. Anyways, right now it looks like the little worms are less but that could be because they got disturbed during the water change, i vacuumed them as best i could, we shall see.

 

[Wiggles24]

This is just a question, I had planaria in a tank recently n the research I did said that they CAN be harmful to things like shrimp n sure enough I lost a shrimp anybody else have this experience? Btw tank was thoroughly overhauled No more ugly worm things