planaria

[wigglejaggles]

hey now all,

Well my tank has been set up for a few weeks with live plants and I have had fish in there for five days or so.

I noticed this evening what seems to be planaria stuck to the glass.

I have only been feeding two dwarf gouramis a pinch a day of flake food.

Is it ok to go three or four days without feeding the gouramis? They are always nibbling on the plants and scrounging around. The one actually feeds on the gravel.


Maybe going three or four days without feeding them will make the planaria go away?

Since I have had the fish in I have done two gallon water change every other day. Its a 10 gallon tank.

I noticed these guys tonight after doing a water change....possibly because I stirred up the gravel?

take care,
Jared

[LMOUTHBASS]

i believe i just had some a few weeks ago - is what your seeing little white worms??? if so i had these n my gourami made a quick meal outta what they found - the worms are in your tank because for some reason there is something nutritious in your water to keeop them alive - it doesn't sound like your overfeeding so maybe they came in on live plants -(just a suggestion always wash your plants in warm water before putting in your tank to try to get rid of any cling ons like these or snails)
well once i saw these things in my tank i stopped feeding for 3 days so there was nothing for them to survive on the worms i mean -but my fish were munching on them from the get go so i imagine your fish will eat them once they notice them - in essence your fish have a buffett right in front of them all they have to do is pull up a chair n eat!!! from what i've heard these worms are harmless

[Leopardess]

Yup. Harmless worms - your fish will make snacks out of them; they do, however, indicate some poor water parameters. Perhaps you are not fully vaccuming the gravel when you clean.


http://www.aquarium.net/1197/1197_4.shtml

http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1998/sep/wb/

http://naturalaquariums.com/inverts/worms.html

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/micro.htm - cool hydra pic:)

http://www.algone.com/worms.htm

[wigglejaggles]

hey guys,

leopardess you may be onto something. When I do a water change the syphon is so big and it gets the water out so fast I dnt have time to cover all the gravel. And I know that there is alot of plant debree in the gravel because when I bought hornwort along with the gouramis a few days ago the hornwart when placed in the tank shed...haha all the little pines i guess u can call it shed and alot of them went behind the heater and it corners where I cant reach witht he syphon hose to clean....and I also have had crypts in there that I have moved several times and parts of the roots would break off and it seems the crypts were dirtying up the gravel too. I have onyx sand as my substrate so having sand makes things get compacted much easier. Oh brother...I now realize I might have gotton into the whole live plants thing faster than I should have.


I also have some driftwood in there and the plants cover about 50% of the substrate but I cant use the syphon where they are because I dont want to suck up the plants.

What do you suggest I do? I know that I have to clean up this gravel somehow...but I need to do it without tearing up my whole aquarium.
I head back to college in three weeks so I am going to need to disassemble it...maybe thats a good time to risne the gravel and give it a thourough cleaning?

Any suggestions? man this is harder than I thought it was going to be...at first I thought plants were going to be largely beneficial towards my aquarium, but witht he way I have handled the plants they have became very messy. The crypts however are doing very well now.

When I moved the aquarium from college to my house for the month off, i didnt have fish yet, but I thought that if I kept the plants in the gravel with about an inch high of water it would be an easy way to move it....well for the two hour ride home the water and gravel swished around and my poor plants had one heck of a ride...I think that dirtied up the gravel alot with plant debris.

ok...I guess I will stop rambling about all my mistakes....what could I do to clean my gravel without tearing up the aquarium?

thanks!

Jared

[Leopardess]

Just do a lot of frequent water changes. Clean the left quarter of the substrate all the way. Next water change do from there over to half, etc etc. Your fish won't mind the added water changes and the tank will get much cleaner anyway:) Or, you can stir up a bunch of the gravel where there are no plants...turn the filter on high, and let it suck out all of the debris - this will probably give you a little ammonia spike, so do a water change to compensate.

Perhaps if the onyx sand is being too difficult to vaccum because of its weight, when you tear the tank up, you coul dreplace it with Schultz's Profile or Flourite?

[RTR]

You do not routinely vacuum the depth of the substrate in planted tanks, that is needless upset to the plants and counter-productive. There is no significant difference in the density of Onyx or Flourite. Profile is so light that if you vacuum it you will have difficulty keeping it in the tank. The idea of replacing Onyx with Profile was joke, right?

Seeing a planarian or a few, or a nematode or a few, is a trivial thing. Seeing large numbers of either is sign of excessive organics in the substrate, but even witn gross overfeding it not easy to do that in a few days of fish, or a few weeks of plants.

Before we have the keeper tearing the tank apart routinely, how about asking how many there are/were?

I'd bet on chance transport of the beasties with the plants, and doubt their long-term multiplication.

[Leopardess]

You do not vaccum the depth in a tank with good maintenance. And it seems to me having a plethora of worms in your tank suggests your routine is contrary to good. ALSO, I said to clean the areas WITHOUT plants directly around them.

Onyx sand is much finer than flourite is quicker to compact and trap nasties.

i don't take kindly to you insulting my suggestion of replacing the onyx with profile. i think it seems uncalled for. Do you have profile? All my tanks do (see sig) and they're seem just fine, eh? It is NOT to light to vaccum and it heavier than onyx. I've had them both thank you.

Nor did I say to tear the tank down completely. I said to do more frequent cleanings. and that IF he were tearing it down to maybe think about switching the substrate.

Further, if there are enough of them to notice without looking for them, I doubt its a chance hitch hiker from plants.

[travelinman1969]

Let's all settle down. It's X-mas!! :D

Leopardess, you hammered on me pretty hard earlier last week, take some critisism yourself. I put my foot in mouth after what you said. Everyone has an opinion. And some people can learn by listening. :cool:

[Leopardess]

I'm sorry you feel I hammered on you....I didn't recall doing it and had to search for it. All I said (I think) was :

"Well, I beg to differ with the 15 minutes comment. IF taht were true, everytime we clean a filter we'd lose our bacteria load."

I didn't mean that to come off in a mean manner, just that I differed in opinion. Didn't mean to insult you. But that is neither here or there.

I didn't ask if what you were saying was a joke.
But here, I believe I was told I must be joking. And I can't see for the life of me why I wasnt taken seriously....I'm not sure what I shoudl be accepting as far as criticism. I suggest something less fine than Onyx sand...and suggested more frequent cleanings.:confused:

[travelinman1969]

It's all Good, Leopardness. Merry X-Mas!!

[wigglejaggles]

well there are nice patches of them on the glass all around the tank. they are very very tiny like this -


just like the line above thats about how big they are. There must be over a 100 stuck on the glass if not more. There are quite a few. I brought home two handfuls of hornwort along with the fish. Do you think they were in the hornwort? My gouramis were picking at the hornwort for the first couple of days.

I just don't get it. I am not letting it bother me, and I also saw one of the gouramis picking at the glass so that made me feel better.


Could it be that I fed the gouramis fresh garlic?

Does this info help any? My readings are all in check with nitrates at 10.

First...I need to be sure that planarians are about this big - so I know for sure they are planarians

take care,
Jared

[RTR]

Gouramis are excellent at consuming nematodes and planaria and hydra, especially the 3-spots and the color varieties from that. And yes, it is perfectly posible to have introduced your visitors from the hornwort, despitewhat some other posters may believe, it is far more likely than having had a population explosion in a tank which has only had fish for a few days. The chances of a fouled substrate in that time are slim to none.

Cats do claw, don't they?

[Leopardess]

Actually...they could show up in five days, I've heard of it before. Also, I merely said that you should "up" the maintenance. They COULD have come in on plants, but obviously are thriving in your tank. Otherwise, you wouldn't be seeing *hundreds* from a few stems of hornwort.

RTR, if you'd like to make personal comments to me, perhaps you could PM me instead of making it public? thanks.

[travelinman1969]

Can't send ya a PM. Clean the box. lol!!!!!!!!!!! What I'll be doin in a bit.

[LMOUTHBASS]

although i didnt have nearly as many - stop feeding your fish for 3 days - this way you might starve off some planaria - n then your fish will in turn eat them - maybe add a 3 spot or so if it's really bothering you - i know it woul make me nuts!!!