Very Small White Worms

[mbrand6]

I noticed a fair amount of small white worm looking creatures in one of my aquariums. The worms are 1 to 4 mm in length and I can see them crawling in my sump when I turn off the pump. In the mean time my oscar's eye has become infected (from the inside out). I also noticed a bloody growth on my severum but that cleared up on its own. I will take a picture of the worms tonight but here is a pic of the oscar's eye in the meantime.

 

[fatdoggy89]

the worms are planaria i think... from ur discription their harmless but arrive when there is excess food around, about the oscar and ur severum the only thing i can say is are your water parameters good???

 

[Nozebleed]

i've seen these worms alright...they only appear in my aquarium after i've been feeding my fish frozen lance fish..i'd do a nice clean up operation over the next few water changes. they'll go away after 3-4 weeks.

 

[mbrand6]

My Water parameters are fine, but there is sometimes excess food from the oscar chewing up food and spitting it out to piss off the other fish lol. Any idea on how to clear up the oscar's eye?

 

[gavigan1]

large amts of sm wht worms on glass usually go hand in hand w over feeding. Recommend decrease feedings, weekly water changes and salt. Should fix worm and eye problem. good luck

 

[Nightfall]

The worms could also potentially be ich worms (part of the ich lifecycle). So long as you keep the water temp round about 80ish, they won't take root and cyst up and tend to be fairly harmless at that point - not to mention the fact you won't ever get rid of them totaly. As for the Oscar's eye, could be bacterial or from ammonia burn, though if it were an ammonia problem, all the fish would resemble that and potentially show signs of hemmoragic septicemia (spelling not being one of my strong points). God, I spend waaay too much time in the Micro-Lab... Either way, everyone is right concerning the appearance of all of the above coinciding with an excess of nutrients in the tank.

 

[justonemoretank]

I think the worms are nematodes or planaria. Totally harmless, but supposedly evidence of overfeeding/undercleaning. What are your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate levels? I ask this due to the cloudy eye your Oscar has. Often, this is a symptom of less-than-perfect water quality. What size is he, and what size tank, and what tankmates? It may be that even if you're doing good tank maintenance, you're not keeping up with the bioload, and the high nitrates are stressing this guy. Obviously, this is all contingent on numbers for your params., but it's an idea as to why he has cloudy eye.

 

[mbrand6]

Thanks everyone. I have the water temp around 83, which is where I keep it. I'll start doing more routine water changes and slow down on the feeding.

 

[MonsterMinis]

ah ha?.. sure something like that... at 83 your converted ammonia can/will trigger to a deadly form. It would expline clean water perameters shown. You can keep fish to warm. There is a reason Discus owners do massive water changes on their tanks. That is one of the reasons. If your doing small water changes weekly or bi-weekly your not removeing this lethal ammonium? i belive it turns into or more or less a form of acid. I really wish I could remember the article I read on it. dropping the tank down to 78 and doing a few good water changes in the next 2 weeks should see a massive imporvement on both fish. If I find that article i'll link it.