just out of curiosity...white worms

[Big Ben]

a while back i used to sometimes see what looked like little white or clear worm like things squiggling and moving like crazy in my tank water. There werent many of them but every few days if i was looking through the water id see a lone one floating around squirming like crazy. they were pretty tiny and hardly visible to the eye. Once i saw one of my young 1 inch convicts eat one happily. I havent seen one in waht seems like over a month and im wondering if these could be potential internal parasites. noneof my fish have white or stringy poop though. Just wondering waht these thigns were/are and if they are harmfull to my fish or even me.

whenever i change water or re decorate im always wondering if one of those things is latching on to me and maybe entering me lol i kno its prob a long shot but eveynow and then i get teh creeps about it.

if i had to guess their size id say1/2 centimeter long hardly visible.

 

[Jchillin]

Sounds like nematodes...FW roundworms. Check in here

 

[Regen311]

When I got my new tank, I left the old tank with about 2inches of water and about half of the old gravel in it for about a week. I noticed those little worms as well, and found out they were just nematodes. They're caused by too much feeding in the tank (overabundance of nutrients). I'm guessing that's why mine didn't show up untill the tank sat (no fish left to clean up the little bits of food still in there probably). From everything I've read/heard they're cocmpletely harmless, free living worms (non-parasitic) at least the ones that I found in my tank. They were small and white, exactly as you described.

 

[Gillie]

They make excellent food for fry, I have a tank set up just for cultivating them.

 

[Big Ben]

nematodes! i remember leaernign about them last year wen i was in high school. thats freaky, i hope their not the parasite type and hope they r the good foodtype. my fish seem good so ill go by that :|. I have cut back on how much i feed but yeah i def think i over fed b4...cud be why i dont see them nemore. but if ican id liketo start a culture cuz im gona be breeding my bettas soon. thanks forall ur help, im gonago with their not parasites so i feel better about putting my hand in there lol