Small, thin worms in breeding tank.
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May 18, 2007 at 9:40 pm #10253atlantis_childParticipant
Today to my suprise and horror I found a swiggleing long, thin and tiny worm thing in my recently set in breeding tank. :evil:
I stirred up the tank water and sand and found more.
And no, there’s no possible way these evil things could be fry, they are as long as the fishs themselves…
From looking up unwanted aquarium criters and stuff I came to the conclusion that it might be ich. My fish have been rather pale recently, even though there have been no changes made to their habitat recently. Their tails and fins are still bright red, and they seem busy enough, chasing each other around, circling each other and such.
Their appetite has been down lately though.I treated the tank with Maracide.
Any thoughts? Anybody had ich on their fish before? Is this what it looks like when not on the fish?
Advice and comments would be appreciated greatly. Please reply.
May 19, 2007 at 1:03 am #11209MacedonianLionParticipantFlat Worms
One common critter is a tiny white “worm” that seems to glide around on the water surface and sides of the tank. These organisms are Planaria (commonly called flat worms). Some species of flat worm can be very tiny — almost microscopic. All Planaria glide on cilia and slide (some say like a snail or slug) along surfaces such as the glass sides. They can glide on the glass front of your tank and do in fact glide across the underneath surface of the water using the water’s surface tension. Planaria are sometimes incorrectly confused with microworms. (Microworms are an excellent food for fish fry).
The distinction between planaria and microworms is easy to see. Although microworms and the small planaria are similar in size, microworms cannot move along a flat surface under water. They flex from side to side and cannot swim or glide on a surface that is submerged.
Planaria in general are harmless, usually appearing in large numbers only when large amounts of food are present. In aquariums, food typically consists of excess fish food due to over-feeding. There are several freshwater and marine forms. Some of the marine forms can get quite large. Larger freshwater species are themselves eaten, in some cases, by certain types of fish. One of the most common of the larger freshwater species (and used frequently in Biology classes) is Dugesia. Dugesia can reach a length of slightly over a centimeter long and is further characterized by having an arrow shaped head and a grayish color, not white.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Class: Turbellaria
Order: Order Tricladida
This is it i have it in some off my aquariums where i overfeed nothing to be afraid off they are harmles, you can reed more here
http://members.aol.com/larval1/critters.htmMay 19, 2007 at 1:29 am #11210celestialdudeParticipantAtlantis – maybe you can post some close-up photos? Use macro mode. We might be able to identify it better for you.
May 19, 2007 at 4:46 am #11211Darkmoon BettasParticipant@atlantis_child wrote:
Today to my suprise and horror I found a swiggleing long, thin and tiny worm thing in my recently set in breeding tank. :evil:
I stirred up the tank water and sand and found more.
And no, there’s no possible way these evil things could be fry, they are as long as the fishs themselves…
From looking up unwanted aquarium criters and stuff I came to the conclusion that it might be ich. My fish have been rather pale recently, even though there have been no changes made to their habitat recently. Their tails and fins are still bright red, and they seem busy enough, chasing each other around, circling each other and such.
Their appetite has been down lately though.I treated the tank with Maracide.
Any thoughts? Anybody had ich on their fish before? Is this what it looks like when not on the fish?
Advice and comments would be appreciated greatly. Please reply.
Ich in its freeswimming form is totally invisible. You can only see it with the naked eye when it’s in its form ON the fish. (Your fish will look like it’s been rolled in salt if it has ich.) Nothing you ever see crawling on the glass or swimming in the water is ich in any stage.
If you do have a lot of these little worms–which are probably one of several forms of harmless, but pesky, invertebrates often found in tanks–and your fish are paler, eating less, and seeming lethargic, it’s time to do a water test, and probably a water change. Worms like that only tend to flourish when there’s an overabundance of biological material (uneaten food, decaying plant matter, waste buildup in the water, etc) so if you have a lot of them, it means something’s off balance. Check your ammonia/nitrite/nitrage levels, for sure. If they’re off, do an immediate 30% water change. Even if they look OK, I’d do a water change if it’s been more than 3 weeks since you did your last one.
May 19, 2007 at 5:30 pm #11216atlantis_childParticipantUnfortunately they seem to be in both my tanks.
I tried to get a picture, but there just wasn’t enough contrast because they blend in so well with the water and such. Even on supermacro mode the camera just couldn’t do it.
Not ich? Well thats a relief. But even if it is something natural and harmless, it bugs me that there is something in the tanks that I didn’t purposely introduce…Kind of like those little parasitic snails I got with the new plants the last time I bought plants…
On the bright side, when I was trying to take a picture of one of them in the other tank, my beautiful betta, Aquila came by and snapped it up in that big mouth of his! I doubt anything could survive the stomach acid of that fishy.
May 19, 2007 at 5:34 pm #11217atlantis_childParticipant@Darkmoon Bettas wrote:
If you do have a lot of these little worms–which are probably one of several forms of harmless, but pesky, invertebrates often found in tanks–and your fish are paler, eating less, and seeming lethargic, it’s time to do a water test, and probably a water change. Worms like that only tend to flourish when there’s an overabundance of biological material (uneaten food, decaying plant matter, waste buildup in the water, etc) so if you have a lot of them, it means something’s off balance. Check your ammonia/nitrite/nitrage levels, for sure. If they’re off, do an immediate 30% water change. Even if they look OK, I’d do a water change if it’s been more than 3 weeks since you did your last one.
Thanks for that advice, I did a water change in both tanks. Unfortunately I don’t have any way to check by ammonia/nitratite/nitrate levels at this time other then taking water samples to my local petstore. I looked at getting one, but it is out of my budget right now.
May 30, 2007 at 11:53 am #11259JimboParticipantI’m guessing it’s planeria. Nothing to worry about. Just cut down on feeding.
Here is a really bad link:
May 30, 2007 at 2:52 pm #11263atlantis_childParticipantThanks Jimbo, but I’ve pretty much ruled out planaria. It’s some other kind of worm. The shape of these things is much different than that of a planaria. These are more “sectiony”. I dunno how to put it.
Anyway, the good news is that there seem to be fewer and fewer of them around.
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