Found White Worms In Aquarium Water!?

[fry_forever!]

Hey guys. I did a 25% water change today, and siphoned, and since I breed zebra danios, I looked in the sucked up debris to find fry. I found one fry, but since I kept seeing something moving, I sucked it up with airline tubing attached to a syringe. What I found were WORMS!

Now, I haven't seen any on my aquarium glass, so I don't think it's planaria. They came from the substrate.

My fish have had internal parasites for awhile, so maybe it's a worm that was excreted that didn't die from the medicated food.

Or, could they have just come on the live plants I bought not too long ago?

I'm really creeped out and grossed out, so if I can have someone tell me what they are, that would be greatly appreciated.

Here's the best pic I could get:

(Click on image to enlarge.)
The little white smudge is the worm. It is in a piece of airline tubing. That's how small it is. It moves about like an earthworm.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[three-fingers]

Nematodes?

Dont worry about them, just clean the tank more.

Often new tanks/disprupted tanks can go though periods where the worms breed like crazy. They are present in most tanks, just not usually visible.

 

[fry_forever!]

Nematodes?

Dont worry about them, just clean the tank more.

Often new tanks/disprupted tanks can go though periods where the worms breed like crazy. They are present in most tanks, just not usually visible.

Thank you very much. They seriously freaked me out. Do they eat fish eggs? Because I sometimes have zebra danio eggs in there.

 

[Tory]

it sounds ;ike something I had..

I was looking at my fry in their breeder boxes one night and noticed this tiny little white thread worms, was real panicky about it, but they can just live in the gut of a fish. Went to my lfs and bought some Parazin on their advice, which treats fish lice, anchor worms, gill maggots and other parasites...the tablets cost £4-35 a tube, and you use 1 tablet per22.5ltrs/5galls. The bottle says it takes 10 - 14 days to work, but within a week and no water changes (so the meds could work), they were gone. To this day (touch wood) they have never been back and did no harm to my fish or fry. There is a warning on the bottle about not to use with shrimp - I had shrimp, but didnt really have much choice to use it and had no other tank to put them in, and they survived the treatment. Although I lost my shimp a few mths later...whether this was anything to do with the parazin or just their time I dont know. I have also seen people reccommending parazin to people on this forum

 

[fry_forever!]

it sounds ;ike something I had..

I was looking at my fry in their breeder boxes one night and noticed this tiny little white thread worms, was real panicky about it, but they can just live in the gut of a fish. Went to my lfs and bought some Parazin on their advice, which treats fish lice, anchor worms, gill maggots and other parasites...the tablets cost £4-35 a tube, and you use 1 tablet per22.5ltrs/5galls. The bottle says it takes 10 - 14 days to work, but within a week and no water changes (so the meds could work), they were gone. To this day (touch wood) they have never been back and did no harm to my fish or fry. There is a warning on the bottle about not to use with shrimp - I had shrimp, but didnt really have much choice to use it and had no other tank to put them in, and they survived the treatment. Although I lost my shimp a few mths later...whether this was anything to do with the parazin or just their time I dont know. I have also seen people reccommending parazin to people on this forum

Thanks. The worms were in my gravel, and I just finished treating my fish for intestinal worms, so it shouldn't be that.

 

[Tory]

No probs, I highly reccomend it!

 

[fry_forever!]

Okay, thanks again.

 

[fry_forever!]

I found some more of those worms! They were stuck to the glass, but then when a zebra danio nipped at it, it started swimming around the tank!

What are these worms exactly?
1. Parasites that come out in the fish's poo & are still alive? (I'm treating for that)
2. Hitchhikers from the new plants I bought?
3. Planaria from extra food? (I've had planaria before, and they looked slightly different, water stats are fine BTW)

 

[three-fingers]

None of those things really, completely harmless, they often multiply to silly levels in new tanks or tanks that are unsettled, for more info read here: http/theaquariumwiki.com/Nematode

 

[fry_forever!]

None of those things really, completely harmless, they often multiply to silly levels in new tanks or tanks that are unsettled, for more info read here: [URL="http/theaquariumwiki.com/Nematode"]http/theaquariumwiki.com/Nematode[/URL]

Thank you very much.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Lol. Stop worrying about them, you had already been told they are fine.


Some internal parasites are classified as nematodes, like Capillaria, but you wouldn't see those in your tank.

 

[fry_forever!]

Okay, thanks. Sorry, I worry way too much.

 

[fry_forever!]

Um, do these worms eat zebra danio eggs?

 

[three-fingers]

Nope, though if they were decomposing they would probably try.

 

[fry_forever!]

Okay, because I had eggs in the tank and they didn't hatch. (Worms were with them.) Thanks.