Worms swimming around in my tank

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Pyramid_Party

Pyramid_Party

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2008
4,916
4
68
Monterey, CA
Hi,

I have these white worms that are swimming/wiggling around in the water column of my tank. I see quite a few of them. They are NOT planaria. As far as I know right now, they aren't harming anything. I have no pic cause they are tiny. The biggest is around 1/4 inch. Im not sure where they came from. Anyone know what they could be?
 
How can you be sure they're not? They sound like one to me. Overfeeding and excessive wastes can contribute to their presence.
 
I know what planaria look like. I also do not overfeed and I do regular cleaning of the tank. I think these worms were introduced somehow. I noticed them after I bought some ghost shrimp.
 
It looks similar to something like this. They do not stick on the glass, they swim around in the water column, wiggling around.

articles.php
 
Did you look into "horsehair" worms? They sound like horsehair worms to me. Ghost shrimps infected with these should be destroyed.
 
Are you using any cycle like product?

I had the same problem one time when I brought SUPER concentrated cycle thinking it was the regular stuff. So I call up my boy and he said just do a water change, clean filter out, and put some accu clear in there. I said what is the accu clear going to do, he said kill off the white wormy things. I will have to admit before I cleaned anything the white wormy things were still in the water but they were no longer alive. As crazy as it sounds it worked for me, good luck!!
 
Pretty sure they are a harmless (nonparasitic) nematode. I used to have them in my RBP tank and went through a lot of worry ad research. It's been years ago, but main points are that they are harmless and could be caused/supported by high nitrates or uneaten food. Sound exactly like what I had and my fish never had the slightest issue with them. Cleaner tank from less feeding and/or more water changes should help.
 
I have had those in a few tanks. They are totally harmless. Tell me, do they come out of your filter when you mess with the media? They served as an excellent food source for my salvini fry. All I had to do was pull the filter pad out of the HOB filter and place it back in and bam! Instant live food farmed in the tank.
 
I don't know where they are coming from. I don't think there is enough of them to infest the filter media. This is in a puffer tank so they don't really get much food, plus they aren't getting eaten either. The puffer doesn't even notice them and they don't seem to be harming anything. I know if there was some smaller fish they'd probably be gone already.
 
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