White Worm-like Stuff

[njdiscus]

I have an outbreak of white wormy looking "wrigglers" on the inside surfaces of my tank. Does anyone know what it is and how to get rid of them?

My current plan is to move my fish into another tank and restart the infected one from scratch.

Mark

[Carol_Roberts]

Planaria are small whitish worms that cling to the glass and other smooth surfaces. Is that what you have? IF so, don't panic. Wipe down all smoth surfaces, cut back on food, increase water changes. Look in the filter - they love to hide in filters. You will notice less and less each day and in a couple of weeks and they'll be gone. No need to tear down tank.

[Ryan]

Carol beat me to it :)

Planaria are a sign of overfeeding. I notice them also in my angelfish tanks when I slack off on water changes and maintenance.

Here's a thread (which Carol also answered :)) from another section of the board dealing with planaria.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=7127

Ryan

[njdiscus]

Thanks all!

Will do as you have instructed. It'll probably save me a lot of time not having to break down the tank since it's a 55gal.

Mark

I have confirmation from my friend who borrowed a pair of Albino Bristlenose for his 100 gal planted tank with an infestation of white worms. All the worms were gone within 3 weeks.
Jimmy.

[OEG]

NJ.
All the advice is great and right on, but i found that doing what was recommended like wiping and doing better water changes and less feeding will work eventually and only to a certain degree, you never really get rid of them this way becouse it reduces their numbers that you can see but they are still there in the filters and all the little cracks where they can hide. What i have found to be very good and fast is to use formalin(37% formaldahyde) for two treatments and then you guarantee to kill them all off and this WILL NOT HURT YOUR FISH AT ALL. Most breeders use this for babies so you can rest assure that it will not hurt your adults to treat only twice and you will rid yourself of the problem once and for all. Of course all the advice is also very true and good, you must maintain your water quality by good water changes and less feeding. I hope this helps and i hope not to tick any one off by adding my two cents, ;D
oscar

[Don_Lee]

Great info, thanks Oscar!

Don ;D

[fcdiscus]

Right on Oscar! Frank :thumbsup:

[Dennis_Hardenburge]

Please correct me if I am wrong.
But I was under the belief that planaria had to have excellent water perameters to survive.
And it is just a case of them being introduced and enough protien ( food ) in the tank for them to multiply.
Dennis
and they can harm eggs

[njdiscus]

Well, I've wiped my tank clean and did a huge water change (75%). I'll also try Formalin once I get it.

I don't think I'm overfeeding. I think it has to do with my beefheart mix. I've notice a tank being a bit more slimey once I began feeding beefheart.

My juvenile tank does not have this worm problem cause I've not fed them beefheart, only CBW.

Thanks for the great advices again!

Mark

[OEG]

NJ,
Your right on, the beefheart mix is messy and leaves little bits and pieces on the bottom of the tank for these little guys to feed off of. I only use CBW now not even using frozen blood worms any more cause thats pretty messy as well, you always have those exoskeletons of the worms floating around, i hate that.

Dennis, of course you are correct, they are there cause we put them there and we have supplied an excellent enviroment for them, and food to boot. :thumbsup:
Hope you dont mind Dennis

[Dennis_Hardenburge]

Oscar
I have changed over to all wild fish, with eight new wilds arrived today.
But there is three domestics that I just can't part with and that male snakeskin is one of them.
So NO you can't have him.
Dennis

[OEG]

OOOOUCH.
Dang Dennis just kick me in the Jimmy why dont ya.
Ok so what are the other domestics?
Oscar