more troubles...WORMS!!!!

[golfnfish]

Dying fish, algae and now worms. When will it stop?

My 3 1/2 month old 5g tank that's been killing of my fish (see "Newbie..give up" post) now has worms. I woke up this morning and when I turned on the tank light I found many very small white worms crawling on the glass. The adult molly picked at a few but didn't seem interested. Darn, could've been cool watching her eat 'em all. Now for the newbie questions:

- What are they? (Planarians?)
- Are they bad for the tank?
- Will they multiply and take over?
- Is there anything I can do to get ride of them? Do I need to?

BTW, my tank is holding stable with the adult molly and her one fry.

 

[wetmanNY]

Yes.
No.
Probably. It depends on how much flake food you're giving the molly. Try spinach instead of flakes and give her a "starve-day" once every five days or so.
Not really.
No.

There are lots of small critters in an established tank. No need to nuke the whole ecosystem!

Relax. Enjoy.

 

[TnCgal]

golfnfish,

I'm going to move your question over to General FW since this is not really a newbie-type question !

 

[ewok]

wetmans got it..... harmless extra food. (the worms)

increase water changes probably, and maybe some additional vacuuming. it is usually a sign of overfeeding i think, and is very common in newly setup tanks. with good maintenance it will seem to go away on its own.

 

[wetmanNY]

BTW the "planarians"are the free-living flatworms that we canactually see. There are huge populations of microturbellaria <1mm long, everywhere in the system, down to levels where the oxygen gives out in the mid-level of the gravel.

 

[O-man21]

I've got em in one of my oscar tanks
I haven't been overfeeding him He eats all that I give him. I think there is more then meets the eye to these little worms.


P.S they do really cloud up the glass if you get a lot of them

 

[Kit Walker]

Those little planaria are caused by excess protein, which in turn is related to overfeeding or too much protein in the diet. When they decide to venture onto the glass they are feeding on a layer of protein which forms on the glass. This is common in oscar and other cichlid tanks due to high protein diets such as mealworms. I had an outbreak once, but since then I cut back to 1 mealworm feeding per week and regular vacuuming of the gravel. They haven't been back since.