worms

[hoges]

Hi,

i think this question has been asked before and I've searched the forums but i can't find the exact info that i am after.

Basically when we turn the air pumps on in the tank hundreds of little white worms suddenly become stirred up into the water. The large ones are about 1-2cms long and the smaller ones are only 1mm.

The can also be found when you disturb items in the tank, ie. under rocks,pots and logs.

The don't appear to stick to the glass, just wiggle around in the water when they are disturbed and eventually sink back into the gravel.

We have tried water changes and have added a copper pipe to the tank, but are there any other suggestions for getting rid of them???

[Anita_ozfish]

Why a copper pipe?? Never heard of that one lolol

Is "planaria" what you are thinking of? They are the result of overfeeding and can be got rid of with extra water changes and less food. They live in the gravel from my understanding so gravel cleaning when you water change will help too.

There is plenty of info in Google about them.

[Lex]

I had that experience too. Put some bristlenose in the tank. It worked for me. They seem to love munching on them After a day or so, its all cleaned!

[anchar]

Hi hoges,

Are they round and uniform in width....or do they have a flattish body with a pointed head? The latter indicates "planaria" (Dugesia sp.). These can be controlled through regular water changes and removing excess food/nutrients. The other possibility is that they are a larval stage of an insect eg. "glassworms". Have you noticed small flying insects between your water level and glass lid?

Either way, they are generally harmless.

merjo

[novafishy]

guppies will take care of your planaria problem. in fact, they are not harmful. only free live food!

[hoges]

yeh i'm thinking it probably is planaria cos there haven't been any small insects or anything like that.

Though I'm confused about the over feeding bit, we feed the fish well and they usually eat every bit of it, but on the rare occasion that they don't we always fish it out to prevent water pollution.

The only thing it could be realated to is algae flake that we feed the pleccos on, sometimes they don't seem to find them, and they'll sit there until we do another water change - could this cause planaria??

One more question... where do these worms come from??? So you're overfeeding your fish and there is left over food, but where do the worms originate from?? ie how do they get into your tank in the first place??

and 1more thing... the copper pipe was something a friend mentioned to me, it may be a bit of an 'old wives tale' but he's been in fish keeping for 50 + years and he swears by it, so we'll see how we go!!!

someone else mentioned adding salt.... does anyone know if this would be any help?

[agro77]

The copper pipe would be good to keep snales at bay, Snales hate copper, you might want to get a Cu testing kit to ensure the levels dont get to high, copper is a heavy metal and will acculimate in your fish. Should be right just a thought, you may also have problems growing plants, most are copper sensitive.

Just my 2 cents

Anthony

[Chuckmeister]

I agree about being careful with the copper. Copper is a heavy metal which is a poison to fish and the control of the dose is difficult to control by just hoiking in a chunk of pipe. If you see your fish beginning to act differently I'd pull the pipe and water change. Also copper doesn't control planaria so your dosing your tank for no reason!!! Planaria is, as has been described a symptom of overfeeding and I control it with the advice that has been given, gravel clean/waterchange though I was just talking to someone this morning and he controls his by getting a small 9 volt battery and connecting it to the water. He claims that it works though I'll leave that way of treating to him Also be careful if you have loaches and bristlenose. I think these are also very sensitive to copper.