Need ID of these worms

Sumpin'fishy

Humble Disciple of Jesus Christ
Oct 16, 2002
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Savannah, GA
Need ID of these worms/parasites

I have a 55 gal with a Blackbelt, a Jack Dempsey, an Electric Blue Crawfish, and a Sailfin Pleco. All are in the 4 to 5 inch range. I use a Top Fin 300 gph HOB filter and a Magnum HOT canister. I use only the two striplights which came with the hood and tank. I do weekly 50% water changes. I feed twice daily mixed diet, and only what they eat in about 2 to 3 mins at a time.

Problem:
I have continuously had infestations of two or three different kinds of worm-like creatures in my tank (and any tank my fish have grown up in). One of the species appears like tiny 1 to 2 mm white threadlike worms which cling to the glass. They move about fairly quickly when the want to. I have read similar posts and assume these are harmless "planarians". I've cut back my feedings and the worms still remain, but they are not overrunning my tank.

The other worms appear in the water column itself, not ever on the glass. They do a very distictive spiral dance as the move about the tank with the water current. They are silvery (reflect light) and almost do like a small tornado would do as it spins. They are usually about 5mm long and maybe 1mm thick with little ribbs all along the body (like a snakes belly looks). Large ones can get to MAYBE 7 1/2mm, but that's pushing it! My Blackbelt seems to eat them when he notices them. These have also found their way into my cycling ten gallon tank with all new equipment. The only used thing was the gravel, which has been bagged in a ziplock for many months. The gravel was dried, then sealed air-tight!

The third type is about 7mm to 1cm long and appear brown/earth colored and threadlike. They float through the water column also and do a dance which looks like a very quick figure 8 or something! They only do this "figure eight twitch" some of the time, otherwise floating generally motionless. My Blackbelt also takes nipps at these.

All these worms are starting to flourish again and take over my tank. The only ones who seem to be staying the same are the "planarians". But they could increase in numbers quickly.

I have treated my tanks with Coppersafe numerous times in the past 9 months since I've had the fish. They dissappear for a while, then come right back. WHY??? Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks
 
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Please, anybody know anything about these pests? I really need and want to deal with these creatures once and for all! They ruin my tank setups!
 
Planarians, nematodes, non-parasitic leeches, etc. are generally symptoms of excessive organics (fish food, fish poop, and all the infusorians that live on these) in the substrate (especially) and in the water column and at the water surface (secondarily). Increase you vacuuming, decrease the depth of your substrates, and get your nitrates down to 10ppm and these populations will decrease and crash.
 
I vacuum heavily every week when I do a 50% water change. My gravel is roughly pea sized and it's only 1 1/2" deep. I have plenty of large boulders and wood though. My nitrates in the main tank are rarely above 20ppm. I do my water change tomorrow and I just did a nitrates test. My readings right now are: 15 ppm

The main reason I don't understand their outbreak is because they are now everywhere in my 10 gal tank. I've just bought this tank and started cycling it 3 weeks ago! I add ammonia daily to it and the nitrates are over 100ppm all of the time, unless I just did a water change. It's almost through cycling. I just added double the dose of Coppersafe. There is nothing in it except bacteria, so I don't see a prob with overdosing copper, do any of you? Think I may go with this for 2 weeks like this and make sure it's well cycled and well coppered!
Think I'll raise the temp to about 85 or so also!

With these precautions listed above, what can I do differently? I really don't want to have to vacuum every day or even every other day. Weekly seems plenty to get rid of junk. Am I fooling myself? I just hate for this to turn into a hassle to keep up with!

If I do have too much poop, what would you suggest doing about it? I won't give up my two fish, right now they have plenty of room in a 55 gal. Getting a 75 for later. My crawfish doesn't poop much. On the other hand my Sailfin Pleco poops like it's going out of style (which is pretty typical of these fish). What would you suggest getting in it's place to eat algae, if I do get rid of the poop-machine?

Thanks again for input.
 
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I'm sorry these tiny invertebrates seem like pests. Usually only planted tanks have a wide range of such interesting members of the micro-community. Your Jack Dempsey knows what they're good for!

I wonder if the second worm you describe is a Naid? Your eyesight must be incredibly sharp, to see their segments. Try a www.google.com search for Naid or Naidid.

Aeolosomatid worms are also candidates.

A word in defense of these critters and others on the edge of invisibility. These are your plankton. They spend their time gobbling bacteria, ciliates, diatoms, detritus, and the free-floating algal cells and green euglenoids that would turn your water green if they were left to themselves to multiply. For perfectly clear water, they are the natural alternative to UV light, hydrogen peroxide, potassium permanganate, copper sulfate and diatom filtration.

A problem with copper is that if the pH ever drops, bound copper in your system can become soluble and toxic again, and you might have unexplained deaths. My own water's too soft ever to be using copper.
 
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Thanks, I'll look these up online and reply later. Any other input is welcome. I'm doing my water change today, so any advice soon would be nice!
 
The only experience with worms in my tank I've had was when I was cycling. I had little thin brown worms that seemed to be growing from the green slimy stuff that would accumulate under the hood. I would pick the worms out and feed them to the fish. They loved em! After my tank cycled, they disappeared. I haven't seen them since.
I can't offer much in the way of experience, but here's what I would do- Stop feeding the fish for a few days (if they're healthy, it won't hurt them. I'd say 3-4 days), then do a generous water change and a thorough gravel vaccuming. By not feeding the fish for a few days, maybe the fish will start eating the worms more, plus you're lowering the nutrients in the water that the worms feed on. The worms are most likely not going to hurt your fish (if they were parasitic, they'd be on or inside your fish, not free-swimming). I would also not add any more Coppersafe to your tank. You may do more harm than good in the long run. Hope this helps some.

Erin
 
Man, I've read hundreds of websites and articles on parasites and not one of them describes the worms I'm dealing with. That's a good thing, I guess! Problem is, that the other web sites about Naidid and Aeolosomatid that I was refered to describe what I have either. Everything those articles (and related articles) described were not visible to the naked eye. Mine are small, but NOT microscopic. Two of the types I have are about 5mm long (half centimeter, or half width of your pinky nail). One is even pretty thick (compared to length) which is about 1mm. This is the metalic, ribbed one that spirals through the water. My fish don't seem to be flashing off the rocks or anything, so I'm assuming they are basically harmless.

I think for now I will try to cut back to feeding my fish only once a day, effectively half as much as before. I'll see what happens then.

Just to answer the question, yes I vacuumed all the way to bottom glass of aquarium, but I don't get under the large rocks and wood every time, so maybe they come from there. I'll try to starve them! Should I get something else in place of my Pleco? He drops poop longer than he is! It seems like it's mostly his poop that I vacuum up. Thanks again.
 
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