swimming threads?

[the Ents]

hi everybody!

we thought we were doing ok...
today when B cleaned all the tanks, he noticed these white threads
wiggling along in the water of the 55 & 30.

we vac/water-x 50% the 30 weekly, with amid-week poo-grab.
2 - 2.5" angels and 1 3" panaque.
silk plants, wood, pebbles, bare-bottom

we vac/water-x 50% the 55 and 15 every 2.
2 - palm-sized xlong fin breeding angels, two 5" plecos, 3cories, 1mollie.
swordplants, wood, rocks. gravel.
both eheim filters are cleaned monthly.

both: 80F, [acronym:cbe0adafcc="Measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions"]ph[/acronym:cbe0adafcc] 6.8, all readings 0.
fed: flakes, dried bloodworms, shrimp pellets, algae wafers, dried tubifex.
occasionally, froz bloodworms, very occais live brine shrimp.

the wigglers were spotted b4 the filters were cleaned.

can this have anything to do with the green ferny stuff we get in the lines?
or did the tubifex worms somehow survive the freezdry and hatch?

none of the fish seem sick, but we had just finished a complete med cycle of maracyn for finrot and fungus, and melafix for wounds. (all mating and fighting related- who knew angelfish were so violent?)

or can this have come thru the water mains in nyc water? this was the suggestion of the [acronym:cbe0adafcc="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:cbe0adafcc]...it seems rather farfetched.

help!
is this bad - or food for fish?
thanks !

[Allivymar]

Sounds like you have nematodes. They generally show up when theres a lot of extra food in the tank. Harmless but icky as long as they are the free swimming kind (as opposed to callumnaris for example).

Nematodes are ubiquitous. I read somewhere if you were to take away all living things, you'd STILL know where they were cause it would be outlined in nematodes. Yuck.

I had an outbreak in my tank. My clown loaches were thrilled. Apparently goldfish will eat them as well.

[the Ents]

hi Alivyar, thks fer replying!
these guys look like white eyelashes, which float around and occaisionally squiggle along in a snake-like way. my other [acronym:a4ab44c21e="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:a4ab44c21e] owner said he'd recommend getting a diatom filter to remove them, or worse case scenario - breakdown the tanks completely, scrub with bleach (bleach?), whilst putting all the fish in a bucket with an airstone and some hexamite. he said no one knows what they come from, and they haven't seen any since the last outbreak a few yrs back.

whaddya think?

[Allivymar]

Wow. Sounds kinda drastic to me. They're not attractive but jeez [acronym:cd55c01e0b="Laughing out loud"]LOL[/acronym:cd55c01e0b] nuking the tank?

Try underfeeding for a week or 2 and doing more frequent gravel vacs (maybe every other day? taking out say...10% of the water). The nematodes need the detritus in the gravel. No detritus, no nematodes. I'd try that before nuking the whole thing.

From fishdoc.net:
"Numerous small white worms writhing in the water and or on the glass are NOT pathological. I'll tell you that first, so you can relax. They're jsut unsightly and they tell you something about the cleanliness of the tank. (Tank with big eaters in it, right?)

They're a saprophytic nematode or worm, that simply indicate that uneaten food is being allowed to accumulate in the system, either in the gravel, or in other out-of-the-way places.
The best treatment is a good tank overhaul and cleaning! <grin>
Treatments otherwise usually would involve Formalin, Potassium permanganate, Copper, or an organophosphate. None of these is particulary safe or "lightly" entered into.
Better than that, I would recommend getting a small goldfish or gourami, as both species relish eating these worms. Once the worms are down to reasonable numbers, you can move the goldfish to a bowl, or whatever.
The worms are most often seen in Newt tanks, Oscar tanks, or crab/intertidal systems where animals live that eat "chunks" of meat. In tropical community tanks the worms are rare, because as earlier stated, the smaller fish like to munch on the worms, which is of no detriment to them at all. (The fish that is! <grin>)

If you cannot use a scavenger fish, then simply siphoning off some water every week, along with a siphon-cleaning of the gravel will help immeasurably to reduce the worm burden in a tank.

I do NOT advocate the use of caustic formalin compounds, or dangerous copper compounds for these worms."

Btw, I don't agree with the goldfish in a bowl idea if you go that route [acronym:cd55c01e0b="Laughing out loud"]LOL[/acronym:cd55c01e0b]

[the Ents]

well, my heart rate is settingdown...

i couldn't even find a picture - thanks for the inpho! the 30g has very little substrate- lg pebbles and a bare bottom to keep up with the poo-machine panaque, so i think the worms're in the filter and the 55 is a planted tank w/ loooooooooooong fin angels - wasn't looking fwd to netting themor killing my plants. yeah nuking the bacteria is drastic, so daily changes it will be, along with some worm eaters. loaches? my angels terrorized the last 3 gouramies i had.



&lt;grin&gt;

[Allivymar]

I have 3 clowns in my 55g along with a plec and 5 angels (2 superveils; know what you mean about netting em!). Cept for the occasional fin nip between the angels ([acronym:4c7b3a29b2="Laughing out loud"]LOL[/acronym:4c7b3a29b2] Cranky things sometimes ;) ) everyone gets along quite well. Clowns get to be about 12 inches when full grown (takes a long while tho); you might want to look into zebras, striatas or yoyos. Check www.loaches.com

[the Ents]

ps what does
&lt;grin&gt;
mean?

[Megalofyia]

Couldn't find a picture of the nematodes?

[the Ents]

those are vastly magnified, right?
they do look like em - all the nematode pix i got were microscope x-rays.
thanks again!

[Allivymar]

Heh those look exactly like the ones living in MY tank, even the same size. I usually vacuum up 4-5 each time I water change. I think the loaches eat the rest. But thats just the ones in mine tank...there are zillions of diff kinds. Yuck.