How to Rid Aquarium Worms?

[cichlidsickness]

Hello all, I've recently discovered that Ive got some sort of worm thriving in my aquarium gravel. I don't think they are harmful to the fish but I dont want them in my tank cause I think its been turning some of the fish into picky eaters. I started noticing them a couple months back and to be honest I just thought they were left over frozen blood worms cause they are kinda the same size and a pinkish red to clear color. But they are definitely not frozen blood worms because I put one in a cup and it was wiggling around! Lol

Anyways, ive been doing daily gravel vacs but Im just not sure if this is gonna be effective. Im on my 4th day of gravel vaccing and although there arent as many worms, they are still getting sucked up. So my question is if there is a better way of ridding the worms without actually knowing ehat kind of worm it is?

Will dosing the tank water with metronidazole do the trick (in a dosage that is safe for 2 larger sized cichlids)? Ive thought about taking out all the gravel and letting it sit in the sun for a few days but it sounds like a pain.

Does anyone know a simple effective way of ridding gravel worms? Will daily gravel vacs do the job or are worms typically extremely pesty?

 

[cichlidsickness]

Oh and another thing, i dont really know how they ended up in my aquarium as i dont do any live feedings at all, not live fish or live worms. All i can think of is i put a pothos plant in there for a few weeks and they must have came from the roots or something?

 

[kno4te]

Sounds like detritus worms. Post a pic and easy way to tell. Usually present from overfeeding. Kee vacuuming as it's the safest way without exposing to meds.

Usually fish will eat them but not sure of your stock.

 

[cichlidsickness]

Sounds like detritus worms. Post a pic and easy way to tell. Usually present from overfeeding. Kee vacuuming as it's the safest way without exposing to meds.

Usually fish will eat them but not sure of your stock.

I just googled and some of the pictures do indeed look like the worms in my tank, others do not. My filter just broke on my yesterday, and I highly suspect that it wasnt properly filtering for some time. It was a Rena Filstar XP4 (now sold as API Filstar XL). Anyhow, thats another subject but the poor filtration could definitely be the reason these guys have started showing up.

I will post some pics when I get a chance.

Can these detritus worms show up without having been introduced to the tank by some outside source? Cause my stock has remained the same for some amount of years now and i never feed live, only pellets and frozen.

 

[cichlidsickness]

Oh and the stock I currently have is a pair of larger sized festae. The male is 11 inches and the female is 9 inches. The tank is 135 gallons. Thanks for ur help

 

[kno4te]

Supposedly come in with plants, media, and substrate etc.

Pretty tiny and go unoticed. Until there's an outbreak.

 

[tarheel96]

Metronidazole isn't going to be effective. You said you took one out and put it in a cup so they can't be as small as a lot of the different types of worms that infest tanks. About how big are they and do they attach themselves to the glass?

I use Rena/API Filstar canisters. In fact, that's all I use. How old was it?

 

[cichlidsickness]

Metronidazole isn't going to be effective. You said you took one out and put it in a cup so they can't be as small as a lot of the different types of worms that infest tanks. About how big are they and do they attach themselves to the glass?

I use Rena/API Filstar canisters. In fact, that's all I use. How old was it?

They are about half an inch to 1 1/2 inches. They dont come to the glass but i was reading that detritus worms really only come to the glass when the oxygen levels are bad due to overpopulation and/or lots of waste. I am almost certain whatever type of worm they are, they came from the pothos plant I had in there.

The Rena XP4 filter I use was at least 7 years old! I bought it with my tank back in 2010 so it was even older than that. Im hoping its just the rubber seals (o rings), as it didnt seem to be getting the suctioned needed to filter through the 4 baskets. Im pretty sure ill be buying another one (same model), but i am concerned with the quality since they sold the model to be manufactured under API.

Do you think the quality is the same? Ive read some bad reviews about it leaking after a year or so.

 

[cichlidsickness]

I would love a Fluval FX model of some sort, but none of them will fit under my tank because the doors are only about 9 or 10 inches wide.

 

[tarheel96]

Im on my 4th day of gravel vaccing and although there arent as many worms, they are still getting sucked up. So my question is if there is a better way of ridding the worms without actually knowing ehat kind of worm it is?

You want to know what kind of worm it is ... whether it's a flatworm like planaria or a roundworm/nematode like detritus. Nematodes and roundworms are fairly easily killed with levamisole which is also a very safe medication for fish. The biggest danger is from the ammonia spike which will result from the decomposition of the worms. Flatworms can be more difficult to treat. The medication to treat them is flubendazole or fenbendazole. These will also kill nematodes but can be tougher on fish. I've seen fenbendazole cause irreversible damage to fish's swim bladder so I'll try to try flubendazole if I ever get flatworms.

Up to 1.5 inches? That's way bigger than the types I've seen other than earthworms. You'll definitely need to post a picture of them. There are 2 ways:

The hard way is to use a third party host like postimages.org (no signup or login). Upload a picture there and copy the 'direct link' address. Then paste the direct link address here. Then you need to add the two IMG tags below before and after the direct link but *without any of the spaces*.

[ I M G ] direct link address [ / I M G ]

The much easier way is to upload the picture directly to MFK. There should be an 'Upload a file' button. Select the photo from your device or pc.