NEED HELP - Discus Tank has white worms & little fast moving "mites"

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sushiray

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 11, 2009
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new windsor/cormwall, ny
edit: besides the floating white worms the buggers/little mites are also white

Info:
- 72gal BF bare bottom no plants, 1pc driftwood & ornament
- 15 discus juvies 1 baby royal 4 baby BN's
- pH 6.6 AM/NI=0 NA=5 API master kit
- temp 87 - 2 300w visitherm
- AC110 + Fluval204 + sponge filter
- some discus show signs of itching (rubbing their bodies against the heater or filter tube)
- couple have been pooping white strands - parasite right?
- one went on starvation diet but started eating, now another on hunger strike
- one baby BN has a big white spot on it's top right side - I think it's fungus, just dosed using Pimafix & Melafix
- just shut down the Fluval204 - I think this is the source of the buggers/worms colonizing - I had written in separate thread my problem after cleaning & siphoning it up, a back wash of crud came out of the inflow tube (b-4 even powering it up)

xxx

So, been away a week & had step dad take care of w/c & feeding. He had been diligent in changing up to 30-40% daily & vac-ing, only thing was he left the lighting on too long each day so 3days ago started an algae bloom.

But now I am back & while looking at the algae, I also wanted to check the tail of one discus which I thought may have contracted Ich but looks ok now (this is just after I had just medicated with Rid Ich+salt for 3 other ones which were cured in 5days, continued to medicate 5days more).

So after examining the one possible Ich discus, I notice on a few others these little itsy bitsy buggers crawling on their skin - pretty mobile even when they swim thru the water flow. Then I noticed them on the glass walls & bare bottom.

Then I also notice very thin white stands also floating around - I see them wiggle so these are some kind of worms or parasites?

I think the Fluval is not functioning right so I turned it off (I thought I had replaced the power cover on correctly but will do another clean up tomorrow & check again).

I am going to buy prazipro to medicate. But if someone thinks these buggers/worms need another med, please let me know.

Appreciate everyone's help again. This has been an unsettling start for my discus (now 10weeks).
 
can anyone assist?

I will be ordering prazipro today (should I also order jungle clear?).

I have used Pimafix & Melafix for the baby bn fungus growth. I have added some salt also.

the little white "mites" are rampant thru out the tank including roaming on the discus skin & the worms are still swimming around.

After I scrub the algae off the glass & bare bottom & cleaning the ornament & heaters & other surfaces & cleaning the filters, I will be doing a 80% w/c shortly.

any assistance would be appreciated. thks all
 
I pretty much had the same issue in a 20gal of mine, i was treating one of my pike for the ich. About 4 days into the treatment I noticed my water was looking a bit couldy, so I look closely and examined and I seen thousand of little white things in the water. I thought it was some kind of shaving or dust from something in the room, then I noticed the were moving on the glass i quickly realized they were some type of worm. I quickly did a 50% water change with no effect i still had the little worms. I noticed they didnt affect my fish. I continued to treat my pike for parasites and i noticed the worms begin to disappear, its been about 2 weeks since then and they all seem to be gone. Since then for good measure I cleaned the entire tank bought new rocks ect, and havent seem them since.
 
After thinking about it, the only explanation I come up with is, a couple weeks before I some baby jags and i was feeding them black worms and i noticed they would burrow in the rocks. When i cleaned the tank I removed most of the black worms that were left over from feeding. My guess is they laid some eggs or somthing. Have you used black worms recently.
 
PNWFisherman;3376640; said:
After thinking about it, the only explanation I come up with is, a couple weeks before I some baby jags and i was feeding them black worms and i noticed they would burrow in the rocks. When i cleaned the tank I removed most of the black worms that were left over from feeding. My guess is they laid some eggs or somthing. Have you used black worms recently.
Click to expand...

Yes to live black worms but I have bare bottom tank. thks for your response.

thing is I have been doing daily w/c up to 30-40%, will be doing 80% tonite.

here is some more history I am sure the cause is within.

1. cycled fishless with cycled AC110 for 3wks
2. then added angels + 15 baby albino cories + 1 reg. pleco from my other tank at start of 4th week.
3. received my 15 discus + 8 baby bn's shipped in - acclimated by mixing water in bag then kept in bag for 30min in tank, temp 82, pH 7, Am/Ni = 0 Na = 40
4. removed all angels & reg. pleco back to original tank (mind you they showed no symptoms of illness for 1month on their own, maybe the albino cories were carriers)
5. baby cories started to die off - I suspect the hi temps were not tolerated
6. released discus via flop n plop - not using shipping water
7. for 5days they refused to eat being skittish feeding flakes & frozen brine
8. finally they eat on 6th day - it's an feeding frenzy
9. by 6th week one comes down with sprinkle of white dots, 2 had one dot in tail - Ich! (probably from my angels)
10. medicate with Rid Ich + salt, disappears in 5days, continue for 5more days
11. bought a baby royal, mixed water in bag then flop n plop - but did not QT (maybe a big mistake, this could be a source of dormant parasites)
12. also started feeding live black worms from LFS, discus go crazy (2 feedings), kept clean & refrigerated
13. given some warnings on these worms that scared me so tossed them out (maybe a source of my probs but I didn't see any leeches or other foreign matter other than the cleaned worms)
14. now just this past week while on vacation left in care of my step-dad, he did do daily w/c & vac-ed religiously, fed 3-4x's but left light on too long each day
15. I come back & notice the brown algae bloom, white worms & white "mites"
16. medicated with Melafix/Pimafix for the baby bn with a fungus spot & added salt
17. still doing w/c but now 75-80% & scrub the glass & all other surfaces
18. cut down on feeding & lighting times

waiting for my prazipro - my 2 LFS didn't have it.
 
The little white worms aremost likely planaria and are harmless. Wierd thing is they generally show up in dirty aqauriums. Not sure about the mites, hopefully you'll have good luck with the prazipro.

The prazipro won't help with internal parasite though. Do a google search for Rocky Mountain Discus, go to there disease page, the metro/deworm package worked very well when I had discus with internal parasites.
 
I also had a brown algae bloom especially under the light where it's concentrated most. Someone said brown is not algae but diatom. I couldn't find any pics on these little critters. Can anyone refer me on?

How about planaria worms? any pics to refer me on to see their lifecycle stages?

the little white buggers/"mites" are on the glass & on some of my discus (so they must be feeding off the slime - I am worried). they are very fast & must have some sticky feets cause they move like there is no water current flow, like they ain't even in water! so no clues on what they could be?
 
I've had a lot of success with Seachem ParaGaurd and Aquarium Solutions Bifuran+ when it comes to medication. If you haven't tried these check them out.
 
bderick67 is right ive had those thry are harmless.....i got rid of them by pumping out all the water cus they stick to the wall the water should dry and kill them on the wall then fill it back up and do a quick water change
 
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