Pink Worms

W

wshackne

Registered Member
Jan 25, 2011
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I've had a 20 gallon tank up for over a year now. I have mostly guppies it and a molly or two. The problem is I have millions of these little 1/4" long pink worms everywhere. I used to just see them when I vacuumed the gravel, but now I see baby ones free swimming around the tank. Over the past few weeks I have done some searching and it a lot of folks say the worms aren't issue. However, now I think it is starting to effect the fish. I've lost 3-4 guppies the past 10 days (water chemistry is fine). All of the fish seem lethargic too and seem to want to hang out near the surface.

Any ideas what I should do?
 
You are over feeding! These worms live on the uneaten food.

Personally I would throw away the substrate, thoroughly clean the aquarium and start over.

Feeding only enough that the fish can consume within a minute (if there is food on the gravel for more than 30sec-1minute you have over fed)

Admittedly Substrate change is quite drastic but reducing food will eliminate them in time.
 
I don't think I am feeding them too much, but the tank is in my sons room, so who knows. Thanks for the advice on starting over, this is the route I was thinking about!

We have live plants. Do you think that has anything to do with it?
 
One could blame the plants but I'll blame the guy on the corner that waved at you last week.

Someone is over feeding. It doesn't matter who. Stop it.

Don't feed any foods for a week and see if your fish clean up the worms.
When you or your son start feeding again, feed only as much as they will completely eat in five minutes. Do that again an hour to three later.
If you have bottom feeders that are not getting their fair share, start feeding them some sinking pellets.
 
While you are not feeding, you should also be upping gravel vacs. A couple gallons a night isn't going to hurt anything.

Also, depending on your current gravel vac, you might consider making lower power one. What I quickly found what that the vac I used on my 46 was -way- too big for my 10. By the time I had really gotten into the gravel, half the tank was empty.

what I did, cause I had the parts on hand, was take an old undergravel filter riser tube and a good length of air tubing and made a much smaller vac. The smaller tube diameter slowed the flow down, but still allowed entrained gunk to get sucked up...gunk like uneaten food and planaria. It took a little longer, but it did allow me to vac more gravel per cleaning for a given volume of water. You could also accomplish the same with a 16/20 ounce pop bottle and 1/4" to 1/8" I.D. tubing. Just cut off the bottom of the bottle, drill a hole in the cap smaller than the tube O.D. and pass the tubing throughabout 1/4 inch. Just really get in after that gravel and stir it up.

Also, don't forget after you do the gravel vac, clean your filter's media with a good wash in tank water. It will fill with the gunk and the worms will leave and breed in there as well.

Don't worry about starving the fish for a couple days. If they get hungry they will eat worms.
 
I agree with overfeeding/under cleaning as the cause. I don't think you need to replace the gravel, it can happen again. More attention to vacuuming, filter maintenance & feeding will help a lot. It's probably not the worms making the fish sick but the conditions allow underlying problems to take over.
 
Like I said changing the gravel is drastic. However, if you have pink worms in you aquarium then someone is over feeding.

Without over feeding they couldn't survive and if they did their numbers would be so small you'd never see. But in your original post you said you have " long pink worms everywhere." So someone is over feeding.

Reduce the amount asap and feed once a day. With the rule that if any food is on the substrate for 30sec-1min you have over fed.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. I haven't fed them in 2 days. I still see the really tiny ones swimming in the water. I will go with this plan for another 4 or 5 days and then see what happens.
 
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