Little White Worms

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

In my 20 gallon aquarium I've found tiny white worms. They crawl around on the glass but obviously can't swim in moving water. I saw one get sucked into my filter. They're less than 1cm long. I have some other questions also, I'm getting guppies this Friday and would like some useful information, and is there any special way to photograph fish? I see fish pictures all the time but I can't figure out how to do it without the picture being messed up by the light.

 

[MortiferousSoul]

cichlid-man did a nice post on taking pictures here http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?t=32290

 

[TLM4x4]

sounds like (i hope i get the spelling correct) daphnia or planaria, they are harmless...

 

[srangel]

You mean the worms just started growing in your tank? How did this happen?

 

[Intravenous]

Copied and pasted from a post I made in a very similair thread:

"Look up nematodes and planaria. Nematodes are thin (like threads) and swim in the water with caterpillar-ish movements, they also occasionally "walk" up the side of the tank. Planaria are more stubby, like slugs, and they move like slugs too...they can often be seen on the glass. Both of these are a few millimetres long and if it is either of these then they are harmless to the fish.

Edit: Look at this website http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article1.html . Also, you may want to note that both of these critters tend to appear when there is high waste levels in the tank. Do you have test kits?"

They can come in the food you feed your fish

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

These don't seem to be either planaria nor nematodes. I found them the same day I'd done some work in the tank. Do you think it's possible that they were living inside my aeration ornament? It wasn't working properly so I took a net and moved its hinge. Once I pushed it down hard and saw waste and food fragments fly out of it. Again they look exactly like tiny earthworms except they're white. They clearly can't swim but can clime up the glass. I've also spotted them going down into the gravel. They are 5 or 6 sixteenths of an inch long and their numbers have grown over the last couple of days.

 

[Intravenous]

are you sure they can't swim? look closely in the water and see if there are any signs of them. also do they appear to come from your fish? either out of the fish when they poo, or going through the fish' scales?

Can you describe how they move?

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

The worms clearly can't swim. Whenever one gets caught in moving water (which is a large part of the tank) I see it squirming around helplessly until I can't see them or they get sucked into the filter. They look and move just like earthworms... I just checked and they do look just like earthworms but the're white. They are pretty fast for their size and numerous.

 

[Intravenous]

I still think they could be nematodes...I don't think that picture of one is very good.

Do you have test kits? And if so do you have results? And how often do you do water changes?

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

No, I don't have test kits but I do know that they've been hiding inside the ornament. I turned it on and saw them fly out. There seemed to be mating pairs and what appeared to be the worms hatching from eggs.

 

[FroggyFox]

How often do you do water changes? A lot of "wormy things" are caused by poor water conditions, and most 'wormy things' will go away when you do more tank maintenance or have fish that eat them.

 

[Dragon cqzzzzz<]

I'm not exactly sure how to do a water change. Do I use water that has sat or been dechlorinated, or is it ok to use tap water?

 

[FroggyFox]

Most people use dechlorinated tap water. You need to siphon some water out of your tank into a bucket, dump the water out. Fill the bucket up with water about the same temperature as your tank and then add dechlorinator (water conditioner) to the water and carefully pour the water into your tank.

If you haven't been doing water changes then you probably need to do a big one right away, and then in a few days do another one. Once your water is fresh you should continue to do water changes about once a week, somewhere around 35% or so. You can use a gravel vac (few bucks at a local store) to suck up nasty stuff in your gravel and do the water change...or you can buy a thing called a Python that is a hose that attaches to a sink faucet...so you dont have to worry about buckets and such.