WORMS?!

[mollyb]

someone please help me. i turned on the light to my aquarium tonight to find lots of little white worms swimming around. these little "s" shaped creatures are all over the tank. some are larger than others and they move very fast.

are these harmful to my remaining fish.
what are they.
how do i get rid of them.

i have never seen anything like this, its gross.

all my readings are within normal limits. just put quick cure in today for ick. may just be starting an ick episode. did turn the temp up a few days but did not seem to help.

have one female molly with clamped fins but when she opens them when feeding, i do not see ick on her. scratching in corner of tank this morning severly on belly. could this be from those worms.

my male platy has become more aggressive since the other male mollies past on, and i thought she was just hiding from him.

your help is appreciated as always B)

 

[Sea_Monster87]

I had these once before in a fry tank. To get rid of the worms do water changes, and make sure you are not overfeeding. Your female mollys fins may be clamped because the male platy has been biting at them. I doubt she's scratching because of the worms, it is probably because of ich.
HTH
~Sea Monster~

 

[susangc]

Yeah, the worms are probably planaria. I had them in my teeny tank a few weeks ago because I hadn't been vacuuming the gravel well enough during water changes. Overfeeding is the number one cause; I've cut back on the algae tabs for my oto.

Planaria aren't generally considered harmful to fish, though I've seen some literature that says that in rare cases, they can become parasitic. My advice is to get them under control as quickly as possible. Vacuum the bottom of the tank thoroughly, over several days -- you want to get all the extra food, fish waste, and the planaria themselves. Just suck those suckers on outta there

Susan

 

[LoveMyOscar]

...

 

[mollyb]

B) thank u everyone for your help. i work with parasites at my job but these things living amongst my fishies are gross. i took all of my gravel out of the tank and put it aside for now. i also went out and bought new gravel. dont know if i should use it once my problem is cleared up though or rinse my old stuff and put it back in.

old gravel is larger and i feel this accounted for my uncleanliness. also all my plants died a while back and made a huge mess. dont get me wrong i had clear water and my fish seemed happy. but once i started taking the gravel out, whooo hooo what a mess. i had been doing water changes and cleaning the gravel, but i guess i was doing a bad job. and then i had to alage tablets uneaten in there.

bought a cory but he does not seem to take interest in those worms. my smallest platy is eating them right up though. he seems to be the only one.

i am also treating the ick with quick cure. no spots on my fish that i can see just the gold molly with clamped fins.

 

[|SagE|]

I think I might have the same problem, but the white worms are 1 to 2 mm long very hard to see, I thought it was nothing until I really looked at them and saw them moving. does this sound like the same thing>?

 

[mollyb]

SagE:
from what you described it does sound like the same thing. they would float around like pieces of hair and then suddenly come alive squirming in the water.

i treated with quick cure because my fish were showing signs of ick, and i read that it helps.

i also removed all of my gravel and rinsed it well. i went out and bought new gravel.

after daily 20 percent water changes for about a week i did not notice any more of them.

only one fish, my blue platy would gobble them up like mad. he love them

unfortunally there are disadvantages to taking the gravel out especially losing all of your good bacteria.

its been two weeks now and i think they are gone for now, i hope they stay away