infestations ?

[Mike45]

My girlfriend and I are trying to raise ghost shrimp and she decided to
separate the female by placing a one gallon hex tank into our 60 gallon
tank. This worked and the shrimp hatched her eggs but we only saw
one fry and then none after 3 days. We removed the mother after we
saw she was done hatching and have been looking for sings of the fry
for a week now with out spotting any. 2 days ago I noticed what looked
like lent from a towel on the 1 gallon tanks glass and tried to wipe it off.
To my surprised this (lent) moved and re-attached to the glass and now
there are millions of them on the glass along with other little creatures.
Does any one have a clue as to what these critters are? The 60 and 15
gallon tanks are clean of them as far as I can tell but I don't know if they
are hidden in the gravel and I sure don't want to put the water back in
from the 1 gal. These critters are white and about 1/16 of an inch long
and move like worms while swimming back to the glass. Any help would
be greatly appreciated not only by my girlfriend and I but our fish as
well. Thank you, Mike

 

[TankGirl]

Well these tiny worms are not really harmful but indicate there is excess waste in the tank, and are resolved by frequent water changes and keeping waste from accumulating. If this tank has water from the main tank, it is likely you have them in the main tank. Be sure and keep the gravel well vacuumed.

I have read that it is helpful to keep the sides of the glass covered when trying to hatch ghost shrimp, as the babies seem to seek light, and will ram into the sides of the tank and die. Some types of ghost shrimp are harder to propagate than others, too.

 

[BrianNY]

Well Mike, welcome to the world of nematodes. They are unsightly but completely harmless to your fish. Follow TankGirls advice and you'll soon be rid of them.

Watch the overfeeding to prevent future outbreaks

 

[Sati]

*Shiver* I dread the day I find worms in my tank

 

[TankGirl]

Sati, I hope you never see them, but probably everyone sees them in their tanks at some point or another. It is alarming, to say the least. The first time I saw them was when I was relatively new to the hobby and did not have internet message boards to quickly ask, and I was freaking out! Now I don't get so alarmed if I see it (only had it twice in the past 10 years, so hopefully I won't get jinxed..) and I know that increased water changes will quickly starve them out, and they are perhaps one of the easiest aquarium mishaps to handle.

Then there is the 3 1/2 inch nematode that rode into my tank inside a ghost shrimp - I did freak out!! Everyone- quick, check your ghost shrimp. You can see these buggers while they are still inside the shrimp! Reminds me of that old Kevin Bacon movie, Tremors 8O

 

[Sati]

Ewww, TG, why'd you have to bring that ghost shrimp story back into my mind? That was so, sooo gross. Didn't you have a pic of the worm inside the shrimp?

 

[TankGirl]

No, it was Madame_X, but if you look in her gallery at "big ghost shrimp" that is the one! I won't soon forget the sight of that thing waving it's body around, anchored in the gravel!

Anyway, I did not mean to gross anyone out, but I do want to put it in perspective. I think the first time I saw the microscopic white worms on the glass I reacted as strongly as I did when I saw the giant one, so I suppose it could always be worse!

 

[Sati]

Yes, it was Madame! Good grief, you had the exact same thing happen then? Good thing I already abhor ghost shrimp maybe, heh.

 

[TankGirl]

Yes, the same thing happened to me, and I captured the worm and kept it in a container until I knew what I had. It is a nematode (thanks to Allivymar for pointing that out!) but is just larger than the typical ones you see. I really did not know how it came to be in my tank until Madame mentioned her similar experience and directed me to her photo. When she took the photo she did not know it had a worm inside it, but later when the worm left its "host" ( 8O ) she went back and realized it was in the shrimp all along! Too Wild!

I still adore shrimp, but I always check them carefully, as you can imagine.

 

[Mike45]

Thanks Tank Girl


Thank you Tank Girl for your quick response and the remedy to this Tremor problem. I had removed the tank and left it out for Cheryl to see in the morning and most of the nemotopes were already dead and gone but we will be cleaning our tanks better in the future. Thanks again,Mike45