Help! White Worms of DOOM!

[Paul E. Morphius]

I've kept some pale-blue freshwater shrimp (don't know what kind) for some time now and ever-since I bought them, they came along with strange white worms clinging onto their bodies. I only noticed the worms after a few days of keeping the shrimp after one of them died with a bunch of them escaping from the dead body.

I have dealt with the problem before by bathing my shrimps in saltwater for one minute and thirty seconds. The worms appear to squirm then roll into a ball then change from white to reddish-pink. The shrimps, however, did fine. No shrimp deaths after that. I also evacuated all of the shrimps from their tank, treated them then bombed the tank with boiling-hot saltwater (OVER-KILL!!!).

It may have been a glorious victory having pink fleshy pebbles littering the tank... but now the worms are back!

I can't get any screenshots I can show anyone that may help me help you help me out (sorry for the headache =P), but I can try to make a description as thorough as possible. The worms are thin-bodied, the largest I found was about a centimeter long, and white in color as I have mentioned earlier. They cling onto the glass walls of the tank and some of them appear to corkscrew to get around open water. They seem to like to attack the carapace membrane of the shrimps then detach from the host until it is dead (or bathed in salt water =P).

Incidentally, I have discovered some white web-like slim clinging onto the water plants (also can't get a clear shot with my camera). Possibly related to the worms.

This is pretty much all I can say about the worms so please share some info that might help me deal with them once and for all without another tedious tank-shift.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mfdrookie516]

description sounds alot like planaria... google planaria and see if thats what you're seeing. If so, you'll just need to cut back on feeding and up your gravel vac/water change schedule a little and they should go away

 

[BigJim]

Planaria are usually a translucent white with an arrow-shaped head. I've never heard of them attacking any live animal though.

Nematodes are white and thread-like, but I've never heard of them latching onto any animal either.

I'm interested to hear a resolution to this problem.

 

[BillD]

I have heard of planaria attacking and killing shrimp. I haven't seen it, but this came from a curator of invertebrates at a major zoo. It does sound like planaria.

 

[Paul E. Morphius]

Planarians are generally non-parasitic flatworms but they are closely related to parasitic worms called 'flukes'. I have realized that my shrimp tank is infested with both of them! I have just noticed that the ones clinging on the glass glide smoothly while the ones clinging on the shrimp inch with their head and tail like a leech. Some of them swim in a corkscrew-like motion (possibly third specie infesting my tank?!). Under closer inspection, I found that the clingy worms are slightly pink in color while the planarians are all white. What they both have in common apart from being worms and freaking the heckouttame is that they can kill my shrimp! I've looked through more about planarians and found out some of them can release toxins that can be lethal to shrimp.

Basically, all I am dealing with are a bunch of worms and apparently high concentrations of ammonia. To be honest, I really don't know what to do. =X

 

[BigJim]

Do the worms look like this? Someone on another forum called this a horsehair worm. They said that it's usually fatal to the shrimp and the infected shrimp should be isolated to protect the healthy shrimp.

 

[BillD]

If you have high concentrations of ammonia you need to change water to lower or remove it.

 

[Paul E. Morphius]

Horsehairs are tapeworms and live inside its host. The worms in my tank are different. They appear to cling on the surface of its host and when put in a solution with a high concentration of salt, they detach themselves, coil up then die.

I have heard of many people adding aquarium salt in their freshwater tanks and actually has its many benefits (not marine salt with nasty trace elements). Perhaps I should apply some to my tank?

 

[BigJim]

You could try a little bit. Just keep an eye on the tank and be prepared to do a PWC to reduce the salinity.