Tiny white worms

[CHOMPERS]

I have been dealing with tiny white worms that at times swim around. There are a gazzillion of them in my sand. I have seen their young cover the sides of the glass. The adults that swim are maybe a quarter inch to half inch. The juveniles are from 1/16 to 3/8 inch. The swimming adults swim wip like, keeping their heads stationary and wipping their bodies like mad. If I neglect cleaning, their numbers skyrocket. It seems like they are feeding on fish poo or are maybe coming out of it. If I stir the sand or if the fish stir it up, the worms stir up as well by the hundreds. Today I have seen a red worm in the sand. Is that the same type or something different all together.

I have bichirs, cory's, a pictus cat, and hillstream loaches that interact with them when they are on the bottom. Are these worms harmful to the fish? And how do I get rid of them? These are in three tanks that are plumbed together to a common sump and wet/dry.

 

[AquataHolic420]

Clean better, do a substrate change and clean allll ur water out yuck! try to drop in some Ich Clear tabs..

 

[Deathcurl]

Those are planaria worms. Harmless, but do occur due to either overfeeding or not keeping up with gravel maintenance. When under control, they usually just stay in reduced numbers within filters or substrate, however, when there is plenty to eat, they end up reproducing in great numbers and become a visible problem.

 

[vanimate]

Are the free swimming longer worms planaria also? I thought planaria crawled over surfaces, but werent free swimming.

 

[pantherlax]

I have had this same problem too in one of my tanks, I don't think they are planeria. Everyone said " do water changes and gravel maintenance". The whole time Ive been doing weekly 1/3 water changes. At the time my fish was sick so I was not feeding and doing 50% water changes every 3 days and they still never cleared up. My fish died and I ended up chuckin the tank and gravel so I really dont have a solution for you, but I doubt its planeria

 

[Deathcurl]

Are the free swimming longer worms planaria also? I thought planaria crawled over surfaces, but werent free swimming.

I had an outbreak so severe in one of my tanks that they were even free floating. The longer worms in my case were planaria free swimming and stretched out, I guess to whatever their full length was. While on the glass and in the substrate, they were contracted a bit. Diligence in water changes and scaling back on feedings eventually got rid of them.

 

[CHOMPERS]

I do feed pretty heavy. I am power feeding an oscar and my knives to maximize their growth rate. I can cut back in the name of the worms.

Is there an effective treatment?

I put a used hob filter on my tadpole tank yesterday. When I came home they had plugged the filter pad My tadpole tank is a bare bottom tank and the tadpoles were not infected. The used hob must have had eggs that had hatched apparently they are much more common than I had feared...

 

[CHOMPERS]

I did three gravel vacs on my sand. After each I took a sample half way up the water collumn in my bucket. Each time I held the sample under a light to get an estimate of the number of worms removed. I have a constant density of about 100 worms in each sample. I have removed as many worms in my third vac as in my first. This is not encouraging. Also I observed worms stuck to the side of my sample vessel even after the third rinsing.

I do not like these things.

I also observed several blood worms in my sand. Is this a corelation or just a coincidence?
I only feed frozen bloodworms and have not fed any recently. Also in the past I have had a midge outbreak in the house. That says a lot for dead and frozen blood worms.

 

[joeytoe]

I get these worms to, I find that they seem to get bad when over feeding occurs, Ive never been able to get rid of them completely.

 

[ChileRelleno]

More than like they are Planaria or Nematodes that are caused by excessive nutrients/lack of maintenance, aka a dirty tank.
The best course of action is to;
1) Very thoroughly and deeply vacuum your substrate, do this daily for about a week.

2) Rinse your filter media and media chamber in a bucket of tankwater.

3) Raise your temp (slowly) to 86'-90'f.
Remember to add more aeration to counter O2 depletion due to high temp.

4) Don't feed for aprox five days (will not hurt your fish) and then cut back on regular feedings (smaller portions and less frequency).

5) Add a dose of salt to the water, standard aquarium dosage (1tblspn per 5gal) is fine but you may dose higher (up to 1.001 SG(specific gravity).