just on my 6th week of cycling my tank. i see quite a few of these worms on the glass and swimming in the water. ive added sea salt to the water. 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of water. same have died off some are still crawing. it gives me the creeps. how much salt is too much for a ray to handle. was planning on putting the ray in a week on monday.
Planaria
- Thread starter j00king
- Start date
Good luck getting rid of them. Salt will not kill them. The tank is only 6 weeks old? Did you get some filter media from someone else? Over feeding or excess waste in the filter is usually the cause for them showing up in the tank.
Presumably cycling with fish? 6 weeks is a lot of cycling.
When the fish come out and rays go in it's unlikely the planaria will last long as the rays probably won't be leaving any food behind. Just do a 100% water change when you're done cycling to remove the salt and start with clean water.
When the fish come out and rays go in it's unlikely the planaria will last long as the rays probably won't be leaving any food behind. Just do a 100% water change when you're done cycling to remove the salt and start with clean water.
The salt will not hurt the rays when you add them. Sounds like the planaria was living in your parents filter. You basically have 2 options, bleach the system with the fish removed and start over or get a good cleaning plan. Does the tank have substrate? If so then you will need to vacuum probably every 3 days along with removing the bio media from the filter and gently rinsing with dechlorinated water until you notice the planari is no longer present. I had them in my ray tank and they took forever to get rid of. Rays are big eaters but when you feed meaty food a lot of small fragments get sucked into the filter. If you get some smaller bala sharks then they will eat the planaria. These worms won't hurt anything. It is best to fix the problem that causes them. Nothing I found would kill them without killing the fish.
100% water change isn't going to hurt anything, it's the filter you're cycling not the water. Yes, the rays can handle the salt but it'll always be better to add the salt after the rays, not the other way round, because it's unlikely the water they're currently in has salt in it (i.e. more of an adjustment for them when you bring them home).
Fishless cycle would've been quicker and easier for future reference.
Fishless cycle would've been quicker and easier for future reference.
If you got a mature filter in the first place, there will be NO cycle. . . the filter will already have a full colony of the beneficial bacteria that comes after the cycle. It will take a short time for the tank to colonize, but, the filter is the key at the beginning. IMHO the 100% water change is just a waste of perfectly fine water, do a partial w/c.