Detritus Worms

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fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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I find 1.5 -2 inches substrate depth is ok for most plants except maybe for larger sword plants & a few others with big root masses. If you don't have rooted plants even less ok.

As tl asked what size & how deep is your gravel?
 

nateyj90

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Feb 13, 2020
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What size is your substrate natey & how deep is it? I mostly have coarse sand & fine gravel (ish) type substrates these days ~2 inches deep. But I've had larger gravels before, smaller than pea size but not "fine". The problem is the bigger the gravel, the larger the spaces between each bit & the more "stuff" can fit between. The finer detritus can work its way down, kind of like mixing sand & gravel, the sand eventually ends up on/near the bottom. You might consider a quick pleco poo vac every few days, they do poo a lot, lol.

I admit I don't really vacuum very much anymore. I have lots of plants some with root tabs & a colony of black worms in 1 tank I like. Both tl & I love our bottom feeders! But there's more than 1 way to keep tanks. I have very, very limited experience with African cichlids. Does yours dig into the substrate? Plecos, even fairly large 1s, only suck on the top layer or so IME, not like some bottom fish that do a nose dive into the substrate get all the food, especially live foods!

Natey, if you could please give us just a very brief rundown of your tank each time you make a new post that will help us to help you. I know you're pretty new but please don't expect us to know all the info you've given before in other posts. I sometimes confuse 1 person with another especially if the tanks, fish or problems are similar & I'm not likely to read any & all your posts again, sorry.
I'm not expecting you to do anything. If you have some info you'd like to share, then I'd love to hear it. Otherwise, I don't care what you do. Anyway, gravel vacuuming the entire substrate and making sure to go deep, helped a lot. I only see 2 or 3 worms floating around every once in a while. Which is a lot better than seeing hundreds. I used to have a bit of seed shrimp too, but it seems like they have all died off. A huge thanks to everyone for the advice and info you've all shared with me!
 

fishorama

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What?!?! Are you just rude or were you actually asking for some kind of help? I offered that. I don't understand your comment...Can you explain "what I expect you to do" !?! You're way off the mark "bud". Read my post again...Then tell me what you mean...
 

nateyj90

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Feb 13, 2020
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What?!?! Are you just rude or were you actually asking for some kind of help? I offered that. I don't understand your comment...Can you explain "what I expect you to do" !?! You're way off the mark "bud". Read my post again...Then tell me what you mean...
Sorry, didn't mean to be rude or anything. I meant that I wasn't expecting anyone to go through all the comments on this thread. And I was thanking everyone, including you. Really, thanks for your advice/info. It seems like the worm situation is under control for the most part in my tank. There is no need for the negative connotation such as bud. This was merely a misunderstanding. It's hard to project tone and meaning into text.
 

Arthur11

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Jul 13, 2021
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Detritus worms usually hide among the gravel and pebbles at the bottom of my tank. These worms feed on fish waste and leftover food. They provide a beneficial symbiotic relationship among the inhabitants of the aquarium. They help clean the aquarium, and they don’t harm the fish. They are not exactly bad for the organisms in an aquarium. But too many of them make an aquarium less attractive. And too many of them usually means the aquarium is in dire need of thorough cleaning. :)
 
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nateyj90

AC Members
Feb 13, 2020
27
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Everett, WA
Detritus worms usually hide among the gravel and pebbles at the bottom of my tank. These worms feed on fish waste and leftover food. They provide a beneficial symbiotic relationship among the inhabitants of the aquarium. They help clean the aquarium, and they don’t harm the fish. They are not exactly bad for the organisms in an aquarium. But too many of them make an aquarium less attractive. And too many of them usually means the aquarium is in dire need of thorough cleaning. :)
Thanks Arthur, I realized that I wasn't stirring up the gravel enough and sucking up as much gunk as I could have been. It's been a long time since I've made this post and after being more thorough with my water changes, there are no worms floating in my water column.
 
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