Spirochetes in the water - thousands of them

[Jan Cavalieri]

The person that changes my water in my aquarium noticed thousands of floating spirochetes in the water - just spinning away. When you remove the water from the tank they sick to the side of the aquarium so I'll take a picture of those, but once in water they spin. They are seriously scary looking. Haven't had any fish deaths. She said she also saw a few of these in another tank but this tank has the most by far. The water smell is unbelievably rank enough to make you gag and nearly vomit. No fish deaths so far. We are also concerned with our own health. Doing a massive water change today but they appear to also live in the substrate so I'm sure we won't get all of them. Need help ASAP. What can I add to the water to get rid of these nasty creatures?

 

[Retired Viking]

I would do a serious vaccuming of the gravel. You may be over feeding your fish and these "bug" are feeding off the fish food in the gravel.

 

[Colin_T]

If your water stinks there is rotting food or a dead fish in the tank.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week and reduce feeding.

Make sure the filter is working and increase aeration.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

So there is no anti-worm medication to try? We just did 2 back to back water changes and I don't see any of them in the water - I can continue to do water changes daily - because these things are still in the substrate because it wiggles. I've been doing so good with not over feeding for the last two weeks - I've impressed myself - and this is my reward? We've thought there was a dead fish as well but we cannot locate any and we've remove everything in the tank during water changes - including one large plant that keeps getting unplanted just to make sure. This smell has been going on for several weeks - growing each week - that's 4 water changes and we remove about 24 gallons out of a 29 gallon tank so they are big water changes. We just assumed it was the roundworms. I swear I don't even want to eat in my house after seeing these disgusting worms and smelling that smell.

The only thing new I've added was some marismo balls but I added them to all the tanks and am now throwing them all out. Only one other tank shows just a few of the worms (the tank that had babies) So I'm removing them from that tank and tank D where there isn't any smell.

 

[Retired Viking]

As far as Marismo balls, I have them in my tanks. I would not throw them out. Take them out and wash them in clean tank water, squeeze them out a few times and place them in a bucket with clean tank water and let them sit for a week and then check them. Years ago I had the same thing in one of my tanks just do a couple of good vacuuming get right down to the bottom and water changes like @Colin_T suggested.

 

[Barry Tetra]

That looks scary, what do you think it is @Colin_T ?

 

[Munroco]

I can see what looks like a plant root and a few pieces of duckwood. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking at.

 

[Colin_T]

My guess is they are just detritus worms on mass. Clean the filter and make sure there is nothing dead in that, and make sure the filter is working properly.

Continue doing huge water changes and gravel cleans until the water no longer stinks.

The worms will go back into the gravel when conditions are better. Right now they are trying to get out of the tank because the water has gone off. When you fix that issue, the worms will disappear back into the substrate.

I wouldn't bother using a deworming medication.

 

[LindaJanie]

I'm

So there is no anti-worm medication to try? We just did 2 back to back water changes and I don't see any of them in the water - I can continue to do water changes daily - because these things are still in the substrate because it wiggles. I've been doing so good with not over feeding for the last two weeks - I've impressed myself - and this is my reward? We've thought there was a dead fish as well but we cannot locate any and we've remove everything in the tank during water changes - including one large plant that keeps getting unplanted just to make sure. This smell has been going on for several weeks - growing each week - that's 4 water changes and we remove about 24 gallons out of a 29 gallon tank so they are big water changes. We just assumed it was the roundworms. I swear I don't even want to eat in my house after seeing these disgusting worms and smelling that smell.

The only thing new I've added was some marismo balls but I added them to all the tanks and am now throwing them all out. Only one other tank shows just a few of the worms (the tank that had babies) So I'm removing them from that tank and tank D where there isn't any smell.

I'm confused. Spirochetes are microscopic organisms that cause nasty diseases like syphilis and yaws. I'm trying to figure out from your photo exactly what you have in your tank...? If it were mine, knowing nothing more than bad smell + wiggling, I'd remove all organic material including plants & any charcoal filter, not feed the fish for several days (or longer), do a massive water change then dose the tank with recommended levels of whatever ich remedy your fish will tolerate & stay on that regimen as recommended by the medication for ich treatment. (The brand I've always used kills all invertebrates, too.) Whatever you've got in your tank had to come from somewhere; does your fish tank cleaner person wash & sterilize between jobs?

 

[LindaJanie]

I just thought of something. Do these bugs give the impression of "worms" or "spirochetes"? Do they spin or just spazz? Are the white specs in your photo the bugs? If so, you might look into seed shrimp. Seed shrimp eggs are indestructible & could easily be transferred from an outside tank by a water-changer-person with improperly cleaned tools. Unless they had a massive die-off, though, they wouldn't likely cause a stench. Remove plants. Massive water change. Vacuum gravel. If the bugs are still bugging you, do an ich treatment ~ that's how I'd handle it, anyhow.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

I don't think I have ICK, although one of my Gourami has a white spot on his nose (could be from just digging around. Wish I could have presented a different picture - what you are seeing is DEAD roundworms (spirochetes describe a specific shape and behavior). Imagine a spiral spinning like crazy in the water. Imagine hundreds if not a thousand of these swimming in your water. I confess I was a bad over feeder - but I've been so GOOD lately there is rarely any food left on the ground the next day. So NOW I get the damn worms.

Everything on the Internet confirms what Colin T says - repeated water changes and don't over feed. We did two water changes yesterday and washed off all pieces of decoration/rock etc, even rinsed a large plant that had dislodged itself so that good timing. The reason I through out the morismo balls is because that's the ONLY thing new that's gone into these tanks and I think they came from them (they are covered in them) Found no live worms today but a number of dead ones and did another water change. Water parameters are perfect and the smell is gone. But that's been typical for a while - we clean the tank (and we clean everything cleanable) and the smell disappears but slowly accumulates by the following week (we do about 75% water changes weekly). We also found the sponge media teeming with the worms so it went in the garbage and replace it with a new sponge. Yes, there went some of our bacteria but better than dealing with the worms for a longer period of time. We added Tetra Water Safe (the only chemical I've found successfully adds good bacteria - when I was struggling re-cycling my tanks - this was the product that did it).

Did a 75% water change today even though I could see only dead worms and the substrate wasn't wiggling. There was also little or no food leftover to vacuum out from the day before, so I really am getting better at estimating food usage but I vacuumed out what little was there to take away the worms food. This should help with our massive snail problem in this tank as well. So we'll continue to keep up the water changes daily for at least a week - longer if necessary. THANK YOU COLIN T!!!. My assistant is a little high strung and she spent yesterday morning screaming and vomiting from the smell. (I paid her a LOT EXTRA) Today she was cleaning a different tank and my African Ciclild kept attacking her and jumping out at her - I swear if that fish jumps out and we're just not going to notice - she is a MENACE (just kidding I could never kill a fish without good reason) But if ANYBODY lives in or near Topeka Kansas I will GIVE you the tank she is in and her and all her tank mates - while this is just a 29 gallon tank - these fish are WAY too big for it So you'd need at least a 55-75 gallon tank. There are 4 blue gourami (mated baby producing pair) that are 4-6" long, a tiger stripe Gourami - quite impressive but very shy about 6" long and the Cichlild that is close to 8 inches long - she's never killed but entirely dominates the tank with nips and attacks. I just want to downsize on the number of tanks and get these large fish out of my life or I'm going to have to buy a bigger tank - which is the last thing I want to do. But this is NOT fair to them at all and probably increases the aggression. The tank is about 1 yr old and in good shape - LOTS of black clay substrate - Seachem. Few "toys" because there is no room. but about 3 decent hiding spots if you count the plants. Heater is adjustable, Filter is an AquaClear. Hood has lights - nothing hugely impressive. Picture below and the room is NOT PINK - must be my camera with a sense of humor.

 

[Colin_T]

Give the pet shop a ring and see if they will take some of the fish. You can get some plants or something else in exchange.

If you have a lot of gravel in the tanks and not many plants, you could remove some of the gravel and either bank up a section for the plants, or grow the plants in pots. Less gravel would make it easier to gravel clean and remove any uneaten food.