Small worm/slug things crawling round my tank

dorris

dorris

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Aug 31, 2006
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Tasmania, Australia.
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Luke
I have a 30G tank which I am currently using for a batch of Angelfish fry. Before that it was my community tank for about a year and before that it was my step dads tank for about a year. Now my step dad is a bit on the slow minded side and didn't know really how to clean the gravel and when I took it over I was too anctious and I should have stripped the tank and even got new gravel but I just took it over and cleaned the gravel with the siphon snake cleaner thingy and have done so ever since. I got a new bigger tank and one of the reasons was cos of this gravel. It was so infested with evil bacteria it was not funny. I couldn't even keep a cori alive in it for long. And I like my cori's. My bristle nose plecs would not touch the stuff and anyone who slept down there would end up sick with itch and rams would often die from the stuff.

I now have noticed that there are small white slug looking worm things that come out of the gravel and scoot around on the glass at a good speed. Some have even began to take on a reddish look to them. Sometimes I put my hand in there and squish them and get them out. There seems to be several every day though. It looks bad. They are a bit smaller than my angel fry, who are now going on a few weeks old. I am scared. Are they some sort of worms that fish get inside them or their gills? Should I get my fry out of there soon before they get to a size where they can be infected by them? What are these things?
 
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They sound like planaria which are harmless to your fish. They usually show up if you are overfeeding. Try reducing the food you put in the tank, and do some really deep gravel vacs and they should start to clear up.
 
Do they look anything like this? If so they are planaria and are harmless. In fact they are a tasty treat for your fish!

planaria.jpg
 
Well, I have never been that close to one and one has not gotten that big yet. :) I don't have a microscope either. But I would say they could well look like that when they get magnified. I will look closer if possible.

I could possibly overfeed my fish sometimes. Infact they are spoilt rotten. Isn't it wierd how things like this just come out of nowhere? It's like my snails, they appeared out of nowhere. I think they might be those bacteria snails or something that people talk about.

Well, I am glad they are harmless I was very worried. I hope you are right about it and my angels can eat them when they get a bit bigger. They are growing at an alarming rate. I think I feed them too much bbs. They look like they are about to burst and they can't eat any more. I only have to feed them once a day cos the amount I feed them is probably a bit too much. :) How could I resist feeding my fish? It's so hard.
 
planaria are unsegmented "Flatworms" and are bilaterally symmetrical. they typically appear as small white "worms" seen crawling all over the glass and ornaments, especially at night.

Planaria commonly show up in tanks with an excess of food and most are introduced to an aquarium from other aquaria with live foods like black worms, live plants, or anything else moved from an active aquarium that has them. If a lot of residual food is left in a tank, including dead and dying fish, snails, other animals, and plants, then a few planaria may divide into hundreds very quickly. they usually reproduce by asexual fission.

If a tank is found to have planaria, they can be controlled by a good vacuuming of the gravel and better tank maintenance. to remove planaria from a more heavily infested tank:

1. Set out bait like meat in a mesh bag. remove the bait a few hours after the lights go out on the tank. it should be covered with planaria. throw away and repeat until the population goes down.

2. add planaria eating fish to the tank. such species include the paradise fish, betta, pelvicachromis pulcher and many species of gourami

3. vacuum the gravel very well and do a 50% water change. often, planaria proliferate when the tank is too dirty. this will remove not only some planaria but their food source as well.

4. reduce the foods added to the tank. planaria often proliferate if too much excess food is provided.

note that Planaria will eat dead fish, fish eggs, and immobile fish larvae (fry newly hatched). they do not pose any risk to mobile fry or adult fish.
 
You are like the planaria expert. Thanks for the info. The tank needs a good vacum but I have not been able to for over a month as I had my angels spawning in there and did not want to disturb them as they raised their young. The parents wouldn't let me in there anyway. They are out now cos I think they slowly "accidently" ate half of the fry after a week of free swimming. I have just been waiting for the fry to grown big enough for me to vacum without sucking them up in the process and it is nearly time. They aren't realy prolific atm so hopefully they don't get too out of control. I guess they are not too bad as they are obviously cleaning up the waste that I can not atm.
 
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