Curse my luckage....

[Peanut_Power]

I've never really paid enough attention to the side of my tanks, but i've been lookin a lot closer lately and there are all sorts of nematode lookin thingys. They make a slime on the side of the tankz, and its rather annoying. There are ones that look like copepods/cyclops....maybe even a little like daphia. Then there are these worm like critters that remind me A LOT of vinegar eels. Most of the time they are on the acrylic sides. When i do water changes though i guess it knocks them off as I saw the 'vinegar eels' doing what i would loosely term as swimming.

All my fish are lookin healthy and normal, all have full bellys, don't look emaciated or anything. Just annoying the mess outa me cuz i don't know what it is....or how to treat it...or if i even should. I was thinking of gettin an UV sterilizer....that might help me out a little bit i suppose. Any suggestions?

 

[santoury]

I don't know what those F**kers are, but I've seen them before, and I have one and only one answer for you, that I discovered COMPLETELY BY ACCIDENT...


KRIBS LOVE THESE BUGGERS. Clean 'em all out overnight.


But you probably got them from not vacc'ing your gravel well.

 

[Peanut_Power]

I use sand, not gravel...and i clean it diligently. I am suspecting the driftwood I added...that or from some of my wildcaught fish. Those are really my only candidates. As far as the kribs...that would be great, but they are too small and wouldn't last long...

 

[santoury]

Well, how about taking the big fish out for a couple days and borrowing a couple kribs for 2 or 3 days? You WON'T be able to "get them all" yourself, I don't think... I personally don't believe in "nuking" tanks with chemicals, etc...

 

[gomezladdams]

Lol what wont kribs eat!?My krib fry wiped out the b/g slime algae that was covering thier tank.

Sounds like planaria,harmless just gross,if little predators are out of the questionjust cut back on feeding and siphon out as many as you can,like pond snails they can be hard to wipe out

 

[Zinq]

I have the same thing in my tanks. At first, I was slightly panicked but eventually realized that they're pretty harmless. My polys have been growing steadily and happily. Guppies and seem to love devouring them though. I find them on most of my tanks and don't really mind them or notice them much anymore.

I even tested out to see if they were parasites by placing a jar of water, taken from the tank with some algae and left it for a couple month. After a while, the lil nematode things bloomed and there were alot of em, same for cyclops. I figured if they were parasites then they wouldn't be replicating so readily in a fishless jar of water. So they seem pretty harmless to me.

 

[StevePerry]

Is there any way you guy could put some pics on here.

 

[jvision]

Those little critters (planaria, copepods, cyclops) show up in greater numbers when there's either plenty of excess food, or still water (or both). Cutting back on the amount of food you feed your fish might help, or changing to a cleaner food may also help... are your fish on pellets? Fresh foods, and even flakes can cause a mess.

Just some ideas to help out.

 

[Red Devil]

never saw these so please post a picture if you can.. so i know how to ID if i ever have a problem.. yuck!

 

[Peanut_Power]

Well, they are rather small, pretty hard to even see with the naked eye unless you really look for them. It might could be rather difficult to take a picture i believe.

I was just wondering if there was any way to remove them aside from having to get more fish...haha. I added salt to the tank, but that didn't really help out much. Water changes and cleaning the sides doesn't work out too well either, as they just seem to come right back.