planaria in bichir tank

[CitizenSnips]

Is this a problem? There isn't any uneaten food but some dead plant debris in the tank and I have a lot of these tiny white worms in my tank.

Are they harmless? The tank is clean maybe I just need a water change?

 

[wolfsburgfanatic]

I've had it before in one of my bichir tanks too. Basically my arm was broken and in a full cast so I let tank cleaning slip for a few weeks. Planaria are harmless (except possibly to tiny fry) and just upping your waterchange/gravel vac schedule (2x 30% waterchanges a week or so) should clear things up pretty quick. Bichirs have a big bioload and can dirty up a tank in no time.

 

[cichlid2006]

Planaria are harmless to fish but may destroy eggs. If you are seeing a massive population boom then something is wrong in your tank. It is usually overfeeding and/or poor maintenance.
If you have gravel then I will almost guarantee that you just think your gravel is clean and you probably need to vac more along with reducing portion size and/or frequency.
After a few days you should notice a significant reduction in the planaria and after a week or two you shouldn't be able to find them anymore unless you look really hard for them.
It is also worth doing some filter maintenance as uneaten food in the filter can cause them to boom as well.
They are a part of the mini ecosystem you have tried to create so I wouldn't bother trying to exterminate them.

 

[CitizenSnips]

Thanks guys that's a lot of help.

No I don't use gravel I use natural fluorite and flora base for my plants. I did a pretty large water change and the tank is noticeably cleaner of planaria but there are still a bunch on the right tank glass. I guess ill just keep up with water changes, my opalina gouramis just spawned and birthed kids so that might have added to the problem with cleanliness in the tank. 5 babies survived though!