Thread Worms?!

[grimlock3000]

I am just not having any luck with fish lately. A couple weeks ago, I had an issue with Columnaris in my 10g tank. One fish ended up dieing, but everything settled back to normal after a while. Today, I was doing my weekly gravel vac, and now there are thread like worms living in my gravel :? I have NO idea where these came from since no fish or plants have been added to the water in well over a month, and I have never seen these before. The worms are about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, small and whitish like a thread. They squiggle when disturbed. I have never seen them out of the gravel.

I feed the fish once a day, and they eat all the food in about a minute and a half. I gravel vac at least once a week. The tank is overstocked until the 26g finishes cycling and I can start moving fish over. I vac'd as many worms as possible out of my rocks. I suspect they multiple extemely fast, so I am going to vac again tomorrow and see what I get.

I was reading in an old thread that someone found similar worms in his tank, then the next day all his fish were dead 8O

What should I do about this? I am going to underfeed my fish for a while, and do daily vacs. The old thread got me worried that this might turn into some very serious.

 

[Allivymar]

Ahhh, welcome to the wide world of nematodes.

First off relax! Nematodes which show up on the glass or in the gravel are harmless; they do NOT kill fish. Its the ones that attach themselves to fish you have to worry bout (like anchor worms).They are UBIQUITOS! I've read, if you removed every living thing off the planet except for nematodes, you'd still know where the living things had been cause everything would be outlined in nematodes. Yuck.

They are usually a sign of extra nutrition in the tank; I had an outbreak a while back as well. Theres a good chance, once the gouramis discover them, that they will eat em. My clown loaches LURVED the nematodes and thought they were delectable. Up your gravel vacs (no need to change a lot of water, just get any extra detritus out of the substrate) and hope the gouramis discover em That should help immensely.

 

[grimlock3000]

I think my Gouramis try digging into the rocks for them, but my substrate is fairly large and they can not move it around to get a good bite. My substrate is about 1/4 inch deep in some areas, and goes up to about 1.25 inches in an area where my driftwood is being held down. The diftwood plate is actually on rocks, then covered in rocks again (I was making a hill). There were A LOT of worms in that area of the tank and it was moderately entertaining to vac up. Consequently, that area is exactly where I recently dropped algae wafers as well, so the worms probably feasted.

I really doubt I am overfeeding my fish. Could my fish be eating algae and the Java Moss in enough quantity to effect this situation? I have baby guppies in the tank, they bite at string algae a lot. My Gourmais eat the java moss all the time. Maybe all the fish eating the plant life is causing excessive poop which led to the worm outbreak?

I will certainly be glad once I get some fish into the bigger tank. My 26g is still going good. I am waiting for a new filter to show up before moving any fish into it. Overstocking a 10g is the Devil

 

[Allivymar]

Its possible. Those nematodes have to be getting food from somewhere, and I don't think they're as fussy as fish when it comes to diet LOL then again, you are noticing more nematodes in an area where you know you drop food.

Either way, its not an unusual occurance, and fortunately its not a dangerous one. I do remember how freaked out I was when I realised the rootlets I was siphoning up from the gravel were MOVING! Eeeeek! NOT rootlets! I hate squirmy things. I can't tell you how happy I was when I realised the loaches were feasting on em LOL

 

[the Ents]

hi Grimlock,
how is your tank?
we had(ve) em in our 30G with a panaque and 2 temp angel roomies.
same story as you, juck!
we eventually broke the tank down, fish in buckets, the works, new gravel sand pebble combo, added plants in pots, plus totally going 'rambo' on our eheim 2217.
the only thing the same was the piece of driftwood (rinsed) which was seasoned and gone thru it's 'teabag water' stage nearly a year ago.
the panaque is a piscene lumber yard- so much 'woodshavings' that we change water weekly at 50%.
so, eliminating slovenlyness, and with such an overhaul by the process of elim - they are from the wood!
had to admit that, YES, Nematodes and Cucharachas will inherit the earth. (sigh)
we watch them go thru periods of pop explosions and have gotten some modesta loaches who might enjoy the snack. they have one more week in Q, tho.
how are you making out?
the Ents