Got worms?

[Jane of Upton]

Well, I know I wasn't overfeeding when the worm colony got going. I was traveling a LOT because of an ill family member, and to give my fish something to eat in my absence, I would get bunches of worms to leave in a worm feeder. They WERE the food, because I was going to be away and NOT feeding my fish. I noticed the worm population as soon as I started to clear out the overgrown jungle.

 

[oO.Crim.Oo]

OK,

so I know this is resurrecting an old thread, but I've got the same problem now. Not QUITE as extensive as the pictures you posted, but the whole substrate is housing these tubifex worms, who stick their top half out, and zip back into the substrate way too fast to catch with a large tweezer.

I also tried vacuuming the substrate, and figured I'd get a ton, but was really surprised at how few ended up in the "dump" bucket, once the water cleared.

Now here's the weird part - this tank (a 30 g. low tech planted w/ a soil underlayer and Soilmaster Select as the top layer) is home to several geriatric harlequin rasboras, several dwarf cajun crays, a bunch of cherry shrimp, and two corys! I put the cories into this tank hoping they'd eat the worms. Then I added the crays hoping THEY would eat the worms. Either they're too fast for the other inhabitants to catch, or they are so dense that some predation doesn't even make a dent.

So what did you finally do with this tank? The little waving colony is starting to really annoy me. Plus, my fiance hasn't been nearly as eager to watch my tank with me since I pointed out the worms to him, LOL!

Any suggestions on what to do? I'm up against some similar issues, since this tank houses my growing cherry shrimp population - its heavily planted, and there are lots of places for young shrimp to hide.

Perhaps a Sparkling Gourami as a clean-up crew? They're fierce little hunters, and will probably pick off some baby cherry shrimp, but I've got a bunch of large frequently-berried adults, so if they can get the worms, I'd be willing to lose a wave of babies.

Any other thoughts on this?

Thanks much!
-Jane

Hi Jane!

Sorry to hear about your worm problem. Believe me, they aren't exciting little critters. I tried everything I could think of to rid my tank(s) of the pesky critters--excessive daily gravel vacs, fish that I thought would eat them, manual extraction, etc. Nothing worked for me. I ended up breaking the tanks down and swapping out the substrate. Fortunately, this worked. However, I doubt you will want to take that drastic of an approach if it's avoidable. If you get as many as I had, you probably won't have much choice unless you decide to live with them. Unfortunately for me, I just had waaaaaaay too many. I think that fish have trouble eating them because they're so fast. Perhaps something that digs in the substrate would work, but I had no luck. I don't know what they eat, but I do know that starving the tank does no good either.

One thing that I didn't try, as I had never heard of the stuff, is Fenbendazole. This is a dog wormer that seems to be aquarium safe. I use(d) it to rid my shrimp tanks of planaria and hydra. I'm wondering if it will kill off the tubifex worms, too. It might be worth a shot. Perhaps someone else can chime in on the idea. From my experience, it is shrimp, snail, and fish safe. I dosed 0.1g per 10 gallons and waited 24 hours and dosed again (0.1g per 10 gallons). I haven't seen a planaria or hydra since and I have not experienced any fish or invert casualties. I have a lot of Fenbendazole left over, if I had a tubifex worm, I'd try it and let you know whether or not it kills them, but fortunately there is not a worm in the house. LoL.

I really hope you are able to get rid of the worms. The longer you wait, the worse it will get. Best of luck! Keep me posted!

 

[DoN_WoN]

ewwww what the heck!

 

[BoCoMo]

cooool!

(although I may not say that if it were my tank)

 

[Jane of Upton]

Hi Jane!

Nothing worked for me. I ended up breaking the tanks down and swapping out the substrate. Fortunately, this worked. However, I doubt you will want to take that drastic of an approach if it's avoidable. If you get as many as I had, you probably won't have much choice unless you decide to live with them. Unfortunately for me, I just had waaaaaaay too many. I think that fish have trouble eating them because they're so fast. Perhaps something that digs in the substrate would work, but I had no luck. I don't know what they eat, but I do know that starving the tank does no good either.

One thing that I didn't try, as I had never heard of the stuff, is Fenbendazole. This is a dog wormer that seems to be aquarium safe. I use(d) it to rid my shrimp tanks of planaria and hydra.

Thanks for the reply, Crim!

DANG! I was really hoping it wouldn't come down to actually breaking the tank down, but it sounds like the prospects are pretty bleak. *Sigh*. Well, I was thinking of doing a total re-do later this summer... guess that is no longer penciled in on the To-Do list... its in INK now *grumble*.

And not even 'starving' the tank works? I'd kind of figured it wouldn't with this particular tank - it is an "El Natural" aquarium with a soil underlayer, and the worms can supposedly live on bacteria. No way to eliminate THAT food source - its a key player in this setup!

Interesting on the Fenbendazole. A few years ago, I had a hydra problem in a small shrimp-only tank with some wild-caught bee shrimp. If I'd have known then..... I ended up breaking the tank down (and bleaching it), and tried to move the shrimp from clean tank to clean tank, quarantine-style to leave the hydra behind. I don't know if it was the stress of never settling in, or the hydra, but the population dwindled until all were gone.
Is this the same stuff folks mix into fish food to de-worm wild caught fish?

Hmmm, well back to the worms - so are you sworn off live blackworms/redworms for good, now? My fish just love eating them SO much, and they look so darn good when they do.

I may see if a small loach would do the trick - some of them are lightning-fast.

Thanks for the reply, even though it wasn't good news!
-Jane

 

[Wycco]

Now here is a question... do tubifex "stir the substrate"?


Worms... the new MTS!

 

[oO.Crim.Oo]

Thanks for the reply, Crim!

DANG! I was really hoping it wouldn't come down to actually breaking the tank down, but it sounds like the prospects are pretty bleak. *Sigh*. Well, I was thinking of doing a total re-do later this summer... guess that is no longer penciled in on the To-Do list... its in INK now *grumble*.

And not even 'starving' the tank works? I'd kind of figured it wouldn't with this particular tank - it is an "El Natural" aquarium with a soil underlayer, and the worms can supposedly live on bacteria. No way to eliminate THAT food source - its a key player in this setup!

Interesting on the Fenbendazole. A few years ago, I had a hydra problem in a small shrimp-only tank with some wild-caught bee shrimp. If I'd have known then..... I ended up breaking the tank down (and bleaching it), and tried to move the shrimp from clean tank to clean tank, quarantine-style to leave the hydra behind. I don't know if it was the stress of never settling in, or the hydra, but the population dwindled until all were gone.
Is this the same stuff folks mix into fish food to de-worm wild caught fish?

Hmmm, well back to the worms - so are you sworn off live blackworms/redworms for good, now? My fish just love eating them SO much, and they look so darn good when they do.

I may see if a small loach would do the trick - some of them are lightning-fast.

Thanks for the reply, even though it wasn't good news!
-Jane

At least you were already considering a do-over with that tank. It's probably your best bet. It took me two tries when I completely re-did my tank (which turned into 3 tanks). I took the substrate out and cleaned it with hot bleach water. Low and behold it wasn't but a month and the darn things re-appeared. The next time around, I just went with new substrate completely. I left the old stuff in a bucket outside in the sun to "bake" and then rinsed it and left it out to bake again. I still haven't put it in another tank. LoL. Also, they will hitchhike on plant roots and any other decorations! Make sure you do a thorough job or you will be kicking yourself when they reappear.

Due to the difficulty of irradicating them, I have not since fed my fish live worms of any sort. I'm sure the fish miss them, but I surely do not miss the ugly things. I think that they must some how live of off the bacteria and micro organisms in the substrate because they reproduce and thrive in an incredible manner.

Fenbendazole is used to de-worm fish. Not even just wild caught. I haven't done a lot of reseach on it and the uses for it, as my only concern was to get rid of the hydra and planaria. I do believe it's also used for collumnaris, too. I've been fortunate enough to have helthy fish thus far *knock on wood* so hopefully I won't be having to use it for anything more than to assassinate hydra and planaria.

Now here is a question... do tubifex "stir the substrate"?


Worms... the new MTS!

LoL. I doubt that's the case. They're really not COOL at all!

 

[apehead]

I've intentionally done something similar with my tank, by adding a pound of California Blackworms. They sort of hang half in and out of the substrate, forming a similar "worm carpet". I've observed my rosy reds, american flag fish, feeder guppies, and ghost shrimp going to town on them, if anyone is looking for species that will eat worm carpets. Also, if you are planning something like this in an established tank, be warned that I was having some H2S (hydrogen sulfide) issues the first couple days. I'm not sure was it was due to the shock of the sudden addition of that much bioload, or the action of the worms disturbing pockets of anaerobic substrate, but the fish were definitely suffocating until an emergency airstone saved them. During the crisis, I was also getting rotten egg scented bubbles that were coming up from the bottom of the tank during some emergency gravel vacuuming (I had initially thought the fish gasping and rapidly respirating was an ammonia issue due to excess bioload).

The upside to all of it was that my fish feed themselves! My only maintenance item now is topping off the water!