White squiggly worms in my tank...???

[Mofo2713]

I just started feeding my fish baby brine shrimp yesterday that I hatched myself and noticed this morning that there were white worms "swimming" in my tank. They are anywhere from 1/4" to 1/2" max in length. It seems they propel themselves by wiggling through the water. Wondering if this is caused from the shrimp or if it is something more serious that I need to look into. TIA for the help....

 

[Mofo2713]

....could use some help please....

 

[poppab02]

Well, hopefully someone else can chime in but I had some worms recently that I found in a particular tank that I let go without cleaning for about 2 months because I knew I was going to tear it down soon. They weren't swimming around but they were all over the gravel and especially in the UGF. I tried for about a week to get rid of them but eventually I just tore the tank down since I was going to anyways and transferred the fish to their new home. I've found them a few times before as well in the UGF's (another reason I don't use those filters anymore) when I cleaned them out. From my limited experience and reading on the subject I believe they are mostly caused by overfeeding, dirty tanks, and basically stuff of that manner. I am not an expert on this subject by any means but that is definitely where I would start. If something like worms are growing in your tank then they are getting food from you in some way, I would think a good cleaning would definitely help the problem tremendously

Hopefully that helps

 

[Devilishturtles]

Free swimming worms are planaria, and for the most part harmless. They are caused by excess nutrients in your tank.

How long has it been since you last did a gravel vac in your tank? I doubt the brine shrimp would cause worms overnight...but I may be wrong. Do a good tank cleaning (not too good though!) and you should see them decrease dramatcially.
You also might want to try not feeding for two or three days too, as the worms feed off the food in your tank too.

Good luck.

 

[Mofo2713]

My tank is on its 4th week of cycling...I change the water at least 10-20% everyday to help keep nitrite down. Gravel is not dirty at all....When I went home today on my lunch break, I couldn't find a single worm....Did they die or did the fish eat them? Maybe they are hiding in the gravel. As long as they are not dangerous I am not too worried about them and will go on like nothing happened unless they re-appear and began to be a bigger problem... Thanks for the info....

 

[TankGirl]

They are not dangerous, but I am curious as to how they got in there. A brand new tank is usually not the spot to find them. They probably got eaten, especially since they were free swimming.

 

[senorcat]

I suspect them to have been fed in the store you got them from, probably. Also I suspect some foods to contain therm naturally, like algae discs, just a thought. I may be wrong, but I have been told that they may be re animated worms that are fed through the different worm foods(tubifex, blood). I re iterate that I may be wrong. I however have found them to dislike a salinity over 1.00, so it seems. The salt treatment in ther past has seemed to send them to the gravel, where they reamass their forces and annoy the hell out of you two weeks later. :x

Darn them, may they vanish off the face of the earth, unmissed forever.