Are These Worms In Tank And Are They Harmful?

[watertown28]

So , I planed on redoing one of my 55 gallon tank and stock it with fish.
 
Went to go in to clean it one more time and to my horror, there was all these white "things" on the glass. I started to vaccume the gravel one last time and the current with me in there unlodged some of these and they started to swim! They were not swimming per say but kinda wiggling around.
 
The pic is not the best I admit... but you can see sorta what I am talking about.
 
I washed my hands and arm with soap and water before I went into another tank to grab one of the heaters.... and this was the last tank I cleaned so the hose to suck out the water now will be air drying now for about a week....
 
So, what in the world are these things and would it be harmful to put fish in it?
 
 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Looks like planeria.
 
Generally fish will snack on these worms.
 
But you can kill these worms if you treat the tank with meds that contains Fenbendazole for example.

 

[watertown28]

Looks like planeria.
 
Generally fish will snack on these worms.
 
But you can kill these worms if you treat the tank with meds that contains Fenbendazole for example.

Ehhh I would much rather not treat with chemicals if it is all possible.
 
Maybe that is why I never noticed them before for the fish might have been eating them? Now that there are no fish in there could that be the reason why the population exploded?

 

[Ch4rlie]

I find that planeria usually happens when either tank is empty or from overfeeding.
 
Btw fenbendazole can be found in dog and cat worming tablets, Panacur, which if you're UK based like myself, is easily obtainable.
 
I generally dont like using meds or chemicals myself either, but totally harmless for fish and inverts, I have treated this in one of my tanks before without any ill effects.
 
Though its is messy white stuff that goes over everything but eventually goes away but gravel vacs and cleaning.

 

[watertown28]

I find that planeria usually happens when either tank is empty or from overfeeding.
 
Btw fenbendazole can be found in dog and cat worming tablets, Panacur, which if you're UK based like myself, is easily obtainable.
 
I generally dont like using meds or chemicals myself either, but totally harmless for fish and inverts, I have treated this in one of my tanks before without any ill effects.
 
Though its is messy white stuff that goes over everything but eventually goes away but gravel vacs and cleaning.

Alright. Then I can stock with fish then in other words for these are harmless I take it.

 

[WILDER]

They can be harmful when your tank is infested with them. They can invade the fish gills.
 If you are getting over run by them you need to take action.
 
Cut down on feeding.
Gravel vacs.
 
Sorry just read the thread again and there no fish in the tank.

 

[RRaquariums]

My cichlid tank had these little guys in it the cichlids would pick any off that climed the glass and the only time I actully saw a ton of worms was when I sold all the cichlids and the worms started to die from lack of food so they came out and climed the walls looking for it.
Mine died after a few weeks of no food or at least died back enough that I didn't see any more on the walls.
But as far as I've been told they get into the tank sooner or later on a new fish in a new plant or in substrate so I just kinda resigned myself to having them in the tank.
As people said above if there are crazy amounts of them all over then yes cut back on feeding and medicate the rank to kill them but beyond that I'd say it's just fine to put fish back in there they will probably make snacks of the little buggers

 

[LyraGuppi]

I find that planeria usually happens when either tank is empty...

That would explain my planaria breakout in a cycling tank.

 

[DRay]

I've had a couple minimal cases myself. Each time I did a deep clean, found some leftover pieces of meat that most likely caused them to start popping up. I then did a 40-50% water change, followed by a couple of 20% changes every 2 days. They went away from just cleaning and water changes. Now these were less severe than what you have going on, and happened in my 60 gallon. But if you want to stay away from any treatments, just try to rid them naturally. I personally wouldn't add any fishes until some are gone. Oh, I also took paper towels to my glass, essentially hand-removing as many worms as possible.

 

[watertown28]

Now would they get sucked up by the filter? I have a penguin 350 Bio wheel brand new on that tank ATM.... fresh out of the box. Of course I used the old media from the old filter in there to get it established .

 

[DRay]

They tend to be quite good at sticking to the glass. I've even noticed them staying on directly in my power head current. But like every living thing, they require sustenance to survive. Deprive them of their food source, and they should die off.

 

[ShinySideUp]

I had them briefly. They would stick to the glass when I did a water change and would jump up off the surface of the water at times; my Clown loaches took care of them.

 

[Gvilleguy]

Agree that fenbendazole is effective and harmless. I had to use it in my cherry shrimp tank last month to remove a worm population. No harm to shrimp.