I've just put the light on in my aquarium and loads of strange tiny white "creatures" have appeared overnight. They are very small, almost see-through except the middle bit and at first I didn't realise they were moving but they are, very slowly. They are stuck to the glass and the filter. Anyone got any ideas what they might be? All my fish seem ok, but it's very worrying.
Help! Strange white "creatures" appeared
- Thread starter cathrynlisa
- Start date
Without a photo it's hard to know but I'd google 'planaria' and look at some pictures. My understanding is they are harmless, are a sign of poor water quality or over feeding and some fish will eat them.
Yes, I've been searching through some other threads since posting mine and had come up with the same conclusion that they are planaria. By "poor water quality" what exactly do you mean? I test for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites regularly - ammonia and nitrites have always been fine and I do water changes as the nitrates dictate. Should i be doing extra water changes even when the nitrates are fine? I probably am guilty of overfeeding, so I'll cut that down. I did a 50% water change yesterday, should I do another today? I just worry that water changes stress the fish out.
too much residual food in the gravel is your problem. having planaria has little to do with your ammonia or nitrite levels. if there's food for them to eat in the gravel, they'll proliferate and take over your tank.
these "Flatworms" are unsegmented and 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.
these "Flatworms" are unsegmented and 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.
cathrynlisa said:
Those sound like freshwater limpets, not planaria.
(limpet)
They are harmless and they will keep the glass free of algae. I had a couple show up in my 5 gallon and they have multiplied. They are so small that it's hard to remove them, I do scrape them off the glass at gravel vac time though to control the population.