Help! There are alien life forms in my tank!

D

Deniz

AC Members
Jul 30, 2003
82
0
0
51
Sydney
Visit site
G'day

I've noticed a few times in the past where if I do a water-change + scrape the glass for algae (weekly routine) a day later I would notice some white fluff on the glass on the inside.

Looks like I wiped sandpaper with a white tissue and the tissue left tiny bits on the sandpaper. Thats what the white fluff looked like. I payed no attention thinking it was just the initial stages of new algae growth.

Yesterday being Sunday, I did my usual 20% water change + glass wipe as usual. This morning, the white fluff was there as usual. But when I tooka closer look I saw that it wasnt fluff at all. They were tiny tiny little worm/slug like creatures, chasing each other, just walkin around on the glass - and there were thousands of them!! :sick:

What are they, and how do I get rid of them, anyone know?

(PS: Its all taking place in my 40 Gallon Oscar tank)
 
Last edited:
There are several little worm-like critters that will live in an aquarium. In tanks with smaller inhabitants, most are eaten before they reach high population levels. With an oscar, you're going to want to increase your cleaning schedule to reduce the available foods for these micro fauna. They are mostly harmless, esp0ecially to bigger fish, but do indicate that there's a lot of available food in the water column.

For specific ID--look at them closely, and see if they are hydra like (single stalk with several tentacles at one end), or more like a worm, or have many tiny legs along each side.

The oscar will need a bigger tank down the line--15-18 inch fish need to be in at least a 75.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom