*GASP wrigly wormy things

[Zak Ursulo]

ok.. heres the thing.. ive had a fish tank for 18 months now and never had a single problem. The only fish thats died is one that i "blunt trauma'ed to death" with the fish net while i was chasing it around. All the fish in my tank look perfictly healthy/vigorous/shiny/and happy.
My problem is this. For the past 5 or 6 weeks when ive vacumed the gravel ive notice a "worm/snakey" looking critter that gets stired up from the gravel. The "critters" are white approx 1/10 of a mm wide, anywhere from 2mm to 5mm long. Note: the wormy things are NOT attached to the fish, they are free swiming. The fine folks at Pet Smart told me that "its a parasite, use this." The guy gave me "Jungle Parasite Clear". When I asked him what parasite he thought i had he just shruged and told me that would work. To me this seems like a strange way to treat a minor problem, using a large broad brush to treat everything but the problem.
Well... guess what.. it didnt work, so i suppose his broad brush just didnt have the right color paint to get my bug. *note* He was visibly upset when i sugested that it came from HIS tank (ive bought all my fish from them)
At first i thought i had anchor worms but like i said the fish are free of worms. The other possiblity is nemotoads (sp?) but while ive read alot about them.. I have been unable to find a good solid description of just what the heck a nemotoad looks like.

tank info...
20g glass tank
PH is 7.3
Amonia 0
temp 76-78


population
4 black skirt tetras
5 neon tetras
1 red hat
2 ribon tail guppys
2 gromnies (i forget exactly what they are called but its close to that)
and one BIG african mystery snail named "MONSTRO"
150-200 of them mystery wormy things

 

[Alien Anna]

It's white worms. They're a pest, rather like ants in your kitchen, but not dangerous. A lot of fish like to eat them, particularly goldfish. I wouldn't do anything much to treat them except try to persuade my fish to have a nibble.

 

[suemack]

yeh I've had them or something like them in my tank too - 2 or 3 times when I've had lots of of babies and have been o/feeding a little (a lot)- never seem to hurt the fish and seem to disappear again without treatment. Guppies don't eat them - nor do cories - any ideas what sort of fish would eat them (and not the babies)

 

[Alien Anna]

Guppies don't eat them - nor do cories - any ideas what sort of fish would eat them (and not the babies)

Tetras, gouramis and bettas would all have a go - they're insectivores in the wild. I strongly suspect some of my guppies would have a go too, since they are quite used to live food. I even had a guppy trying to have a go at a snail yesterday (got too excited but then he obviously decided that escargot wasn't for him).

 

[Dragonslair]

As Anna says they are a pest,especially if they are allowed to become invasive. My suggestion is to do regular gravel cleaning to eventually get rid of them. They thing to remember are the ones that die and decompose will affect the water quality and pollute the whole tank. So if you don't have fish that will eat them then vacuum them up.

 

[infant340]

i had the same prob i think they're called planaria. i went way freako and clean the whole damn tank. i thought it was just freaky

 

[Zak Ursulo]

Well.. i did a large water change 75% or so and vacumed the heck out of the gravel and cleaned off my plants ect ect.. then... muhahahaha..i starved my fish for a day or so to see if they would go after the little buggers.. sure enough.. i caught one of my black skirts slurping one down.. but... as long as they eat them and i dont see them free swiming around i guess they are controled. B)

 

[Angel Lady]

are they a lot of them in your tank that would seem like overfeeding to me I couldnt rest until I got down to the last one out of my tank.