Pest snails and worms in my shrimp tank

[Jadub]

Hi everyone. I have a 10 gallon red cherry shrimp tank with at least 20 adults and many babies. I have sand as my substrate and I over fed a few times and now I have a huge infestation to deal with. I bought 4 assassin snails to try and control the snail problem. But I don't know what to do about the worms. I'm afraid to vacuum the sand because I have noticed about 20 new baby shrimps and I don't want to suck them up. Any tips besides not feeding for a few days to take care of worms? Here's a pic from the other day. Tank is looking filthy


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[Jadub]

And in that pic you can see some remnants of an algae wafer that was there for an hour. And there is about 15 shrimplets and a bunch of baby snails and a whole mess of worms


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[stingrays4]

Hi you need to cut back on your feeding quite drastically. I have a similar problem. The snails I hand picked out as many snails as possible and as you have done got some assassins and that has helped allot. You can also buy snail traps but the shrimps will get in there as well! The worms are a different matter,just try and cut back on the feeding and learn to live with them. They are relatively harmless but unsightly. I have found the worms love frozen mussel so if you place some in the tank they go mad for it and when its covered simply remove the mussel and worms,but the shrimps will also go for the mussel but generally will swim away when you take out the mussel. Good luck.

 

[Jadub]

Thanks. I know my feeding was way out of hand for awhile I'll give the mussels a try


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[Nils]

I have heard of assassin snails taking out shrimp so keep an eye out for them. Snails really don't harm a tank at all. They just reproduce but that's about it. They won't hurt your shrimp. As for the worms, I haven't ever heard of that. But anyway, snails are harmless and if you really get annoyed it's a good excuse to set up a puffer tank!

 

[evil Nick]

where did the worms come from?
Throw a small fishy in there and let him eat them lol

 

[stingrays4]

Hi the worms form a parasitic lifestyle so they can only grow and breed in a tank if it contains shrimps, they are harmless but unsightly and do show that you are overfeeding.

 

[joeychizzle]

Perhaps a few neon tetras or guppies will polish off the worms? If you're worried about the shrimp fry, a clump of java moss or a similar plant will give them some cover.

 

[Jadub]

Thanks for all the responses. Hopefully I can get this under control soon because I can't stand looking at these things


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