What the.... little worms in my aquarium?! (from a Kiwi?)

[cee219]

Two weeks ago or so... my brother was trying to catch a rounded snail infestation in our 10 gallon planted tank... so he put a kiwi in there and it accidentally got left in over night. I'll first say that there are NO fish in that tank right now. (and never use a kiwi to catch snails - horrible idea)

Wonderful, I know. Really disgusting clear fuzzy stuff grew... .we took it out.. had a big mess of it in the aquarium... and I thought it was over.

Well I was cleaning some algae today and noticed that there are TINY worms... about 1/10 of a mm wide and 3 mm's long (if that) ALL OVER the sides of my aquarium.

Insect larvae? I don't know, but there are tons of something round swimming around in the water here and there.... can really, small "newborn" snails swim at all?

 

[cee219]

Okay, I read an article... sounds like they might be Planaria?

 

[An t-iasg]

Planaria would be my guess too. The decaying kiwi probably provided the perfect water conditions for them to thrive. They aren't parasitic and they won't harm the fish, if you had any. Here's a good article on how to get rid of them: AquariumCorner

 

[DepotFish]

I have to agree. I had a few once. I though they were adorable. They do bother fish a bit (though not purposely); I watched a planaria worm swept into the current of my filter and into the face of my goldfish. The goldfish then proceded to scrape against decor to get the little bugger off its face.

 

[Jarred Darque]

On occasion I will see one in my tank, never more than that at once, I mean on occasion, like every few months.