ID? Looks like a slug or something...

[AdamHorton]

Can anyone identify what's in these pictures?

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/ID/slug01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/ID/slug02.jpg

I find these things really strange: they don't seem to be bad for the tank but I'd like to know what they are. Here's the story:

I have a 20G planted shrimp tank with a nice colony going. I took some bio-media from that tank and started a 10G tank for my girlfriend. I fishless-cycled it, then populated it with some clippings from my plants, and some of my Red Cherry Shrimp. From the fish store, we added some moss balls and a snail, and since then I noticed these things crawling around in her tank -- but not in mine. I'm not sure where they came from. The snail was a gold-colored mystery snail.

 

[Rivercats]

They look like Planarians to me.

 

[AdamHorton]

Planarian seems to line up with what I've seen. Looks like it's not a huge deal to get rid of them, though they could be bad for the baby shrimps, which we have noticed we've seen less of in her tank.

Getting rid of them: looks like she could be feeding too much, so I'll tell her to feed less. More frequent water changes and stirring up the gravel will help. They say to check levels, but I'm not really sure what kind of levels would be conducive to this. I'll have her run some tests for Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate -- what exactly am I looking for?

Can I assume that any fish that would eat these worms would also eat all of the shrimps as well?

 

[Rivercats]

I've never had to deal with them (thank goodness) but I believe gourami's eat them. You should be able to find that info out on line. I'd check to see if dwarf gourami's eat them. Regular gourami's can be too aggressive for some tanks.