Parasites??

[Yeti]

Ive never thought anything of these before in my tank, they have been in there maybe a month or so, and I just always figured they were particles in the water from my PWC, since its tap water..

well after damn near pressing my face up to the glass and staring for a bit I noticed these little buggers are moving! and they aren't blowing around in the current, they are squiggling and wriggling like a worm or something.. they are small and white... we are talking almost microscopic small. They are all over my tank too, I can see them on all sides of the glass, my heater, even my snail's shells.. what are they? somebody mentioned to me nematodes? are they bad? if so how do you get rid of them?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Nematodes or planaria, yes. Generally they just arise from nutrients in your water, and are common in newer tanks or undercleaned tanks. In general, if you reduce the amount you feed, vaccum more often, and change the water they will go away. But they are harmless to the fish and inverts, if not a tasty snack.

 

[Yeti]

reduce the amount I feed? I only put a tiny pinch of flakes in once in the morning, once at night and usually 1 algae wafer, the snails and pleco munch on that. the flakes are usually gone in a minute or two.. so how much reducing should I do? once a day? how often do fish need to eat to be healthy/happy? if feeding them only once a day (say the morning) then so be it..

if I had to do some deep gravel vaccuming Id have to pull out all my plants, when I try to deep vac it uproots them and I have to wedge them back in the gravel by hand..

 

[Zagz]

I only feed my fish once a day, but you could add an extra water change and gravel vac as best as you can with the plants. As DT mentioned they don't harm the fish or plants at all.

 

[plecoperson]

I finally figured out that I get the nematode-y things in the tanks where I drop in algae wafers and they sit for a day as the snails/shrimp eat them. In the pleco tank they don't "sit" and I don't have the little buggers. I feed the tablet food in one spot in front of the tank, so I can gravel clean that bit without disturbing the plants.

The tank occupants love to cruise around after I clean and feast on the uprooted critters.