little wormy type thingies

[cathrynlisa]

Me again, sorry.

I started a fishless cycle on sunday 10th Sept after having run my new filter in my dads established aquarium (coldwater) for a few days. My husband just put the light on briefly and noticed a couple of tiny weeny lickle wormy thingies floating about in the current from the filter. Is this normal or should I panic?!!

 

[RISK2123]

definatley panic!! nah jk. u havent added any fish right? not sure exactly what the worms are, its hard to say with out seeing. but if i were u i would get some of ur dads gravel from the established tank, put some in a nylon stocking and hang that in ur tank. it will help cylce 2x as fast. if u could get a pic of the "worms" that would help out.

 

[cathrynlisa]

Haven't got a digital camera I'm afraid, but they look like tiny little threads about 3 or 4mm long that's all and wriggly. If they weren't wriggly, I'd have thought they were just little bits of fish poo from the filter (from dad's tank).

 

[Dangerdoll]

could be nematodes or planaria. These happen a lot to new tanks and are probably in your tank from the seed of your fathers tank. This is perfectly normal and easy to deal with. The way to keep them there is to over feed your fish and slack on your water maintenance. To keep them controlled and/or out of your tank is to feed the inhabitants of the tank properly and provide weekly water changing and vaccuuming

HTH

 

[cathrynlisa]

The way to keep them there is to over feed your fish and slack on your water maintenance. To keep them controlled and/or out of your tank is to feed the inhabitants of the tank properly and provide weekly water changing and vaccuuming

HTH

Oh, so does this mean that since I'm only just into the start of my fishless cycle and therefore not putting any food into the tank that the litle critters might die off before i get to add fish anyway?

 

[Dangerdoll]

that's right you should be fine with them or without in your tank once it's cycled. If they are still there, the fish you put into the tank once cycled, will most likely eat them.