Disgusting Tiny White Worms In Tank!

[Bluejay]

Hey,

I've been cycling my tank for about a week now and today I noticed some tiny white worms in tank, they're incredibly thin between about 0.5-1cm long very wriggly. All thats in the tank in the moment is 1 piece of bogwood (Which was soaked for 2 weeks beforehand and boiled), sand a substrate which was sat dry for 3 weeks beforehand and a piece matured filter media. I noticed yesterday that there was a sort of wispy dusty sort of stuff coating the bottom of the bogwood so I gave it a bit of scrub to try and get most of it off but some of it still seems to be there. Could this be some sort of eggs or something from the things? I also noticed a snail in the tank today which probably came from the matured media since it looks the same as some snails that are in the tank the media came from. Also I know this might sound stupid but would these worm things have any health risk to me? I definatly don't want worms. I'm pretty freaked out by this, can anyone indentify what these things might be or what I should do about it?

Sorry I'm not sure if this topic is in the right place, please move it anywhere else if its more approriate.

 

[jayjay]

Most likely planaria and they are harmless normally, fish will occasionally eat them.

 

[Bluejay]

Ok thanks I'm not 100% sure if thats them or not, they are very white and in some pictures I've found they seem to be a bit brown. Also it definatly doesn't look like the picture on the Planaria acrticle on wikipedia. Also even if this is harmless is there an easy way to get rid of them?

http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planaria

It looks just like the thing in this video

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdzYZ2RrNSk

I've managed to get a picture of one, because of the size of them etc its not very high quality but it gives you an idea of what it might be.



Update: I seem to have a very large amount on extra tiny (Like 1mm or less) white things on the glass in the aquarium, they seem to virtually everywhere and from what I've read they seem to be planaria. I'm not sure if the other worm things (which are free swimming btw are planaria as well or not).

Also I've read that they are usually caused by overfeeding, since I'm currently not putting any food into the tank, does anyone know what could they be feeding on?

 

[Lord Spooky]

Yep there harmless. Sometimes they get stirred up when you do water changes.

 

[JezzaBeadle]

Oh that's very mean! I'm sure they're not disgusting! Just think of them as little pets before you put some fish in there.

 

[jourdy288]

Those look like the nematodes in my tank. Ignore them. They will become fish food after you add fish, and eventually they will just stay in the substrate. Also, these are non-parasitic.

 

[Amunet]

Yeah planaria is harmless and your fish will enjoy eating them if they find them.
They're nasty little things but nothing to worry about.
Their numbers will dwindle once the ammonia in your tank starts going down.

 

[Bluejay]

Thanks very much everyone
I'm pretty confident that it is Planaria and I'm cleaning the sides of tank and doing water changes as well as reducing the temperature a bit since they didn't turn up until I increased the temp to about 30c.

 

[Gatorbait]

Planaria can also be caused by overfeeding, also.