parasites please help

[ltgoof]

Hello SD guru(s),

I have a parasite outbreak on my 90 gal discus tank. I have never seen these organisms before, they are hanging on the aquarium glass and visible to our naked eye. I took a photo and zoom it as large as possible, please see the attached photo. There are 2 organisms, one is like a jelly fish and the other one is like a worm. They are spreading and sticking all over the acquarium glass. I started scraping them every other day coz i thought they are linth or dirt trapped on a slimy surface.

I started to panic when one of my discus seemed to behave strangely as he used to be agile/active and he is one of my acquarium pigs.

Can anybody identify these and what's the remedy?

Thanks.

[ltgoof]

ops the picture did not go through, here it is.

[ltgoof]

Here's an enlarge version.

[Graham]

Hi, That is no parasite that I've ever seen and since it's on the glass and not the fish, it's not much of a fish parasite:) The most common visible parasite are Argulus and Lernea and they would be on the fish and the pics don't show them

There are all kinds of little critters that show up in our tanks, usually due to too much organics in the water. Try wiping them all off the glass and then do a good water changes cleaning the mechanical section or the filters and vacuuming the gravel if you're using it.

I really don't think this is anything to worry about

Graham

[trebor69]

I dunno about the big round one

but the worm like ones might be Planaria (http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Ali_Planaria_Worms.html) ?

[CARY_GLdiscus]

Graham +trebor69,

Are Right Planaria worms! Listen to Graham's Advise.

[doc3toes]

yeah thats a new one to me too. i agree, not likely to be a parasite. is this a planted tank? looks kinda like a hydroid of some sort. or maybe a pollen or seed pod? any inverts in the tank? as said, just increase your cleaning/water quality or possible drop the feedings down a bit.

[ltgoof]

Thanks for your advise guys, I did scraped 4 sides of my tank, clean the filter then after that I did a 50% water change. So far everybody is eating well, except for that one leopard which behave strange as before. I also reduce the light from 12 to 8 hrs.

Now I'm closely monitoring the ph and the NH3/NH2 level, so far there is no issue, ph is very stable and almost no Amonia present.

Thanks.

[Don Trinko]

Be carefull abought over feeding. For me this is normaly the cause of planaria and other small critters. Don T.

[Graham]

ph is very stable and almost no Amonia present...''

Hi, There should be no ammonia present...is this a new tank?

[ltgoof]

Hi Graham,

I had my 90G discus tank setup exactly 3 weeks now. I have a cycled 20G tank for ages though and transfered a sponge from the 20G to the newly setup discus tank before I picked up the babies. April also gave me a sponge to help the bacteria colonized my tank rightaway.

When I checked my ph the other day (tank is almost 3 weeks) it is a day after I had a 30% water change as I do WC every day. I got a reading of between 0 and .6 as the water change in color not exactly as the .6 color mark.

Is this normal?

[pcsb23]

... I got a reading of between 0 and .6 as the water change in color not exactly as the .6 color mark.

Is this normal?No, should be zero always. Some test kits are for salt water and freshwater, I have found these to sometimes give a "false" reading on ammonia.

[ltgoof]

Thanks for your posts guys, so far everybody seems to be back to normal... feeding well. pH is stable, 0 amonia for the past 5 days.

That jelly fish like creature is still a puzzle to me. Ater scraping the glass (once a day), I also put some epsom salt to help the bloated leopard, I have not seen those creatures again. :D

Cheers!