Urgent Urgent Help

[Dunluce2]

Helloits dunluce2 again. I dont know if you remember my threads with mysterious deaths and everyone pointed to poor water quality and overstocking. I have had continued deaths. and have taken to examining their gills as best i could. I couldnt find any sign of fluke. i had three barbs that had signs of gill distress and isolated them in a quarantine tank. They have been in there for a few weeks. I have been doing regular water changes on both tanks and added a external canister filter for my 60l tank. I did a water change today on both tanks then fed the fish after it all settled down. Then i sat and watch my fish as i am want to do. After i while my attention was drawn to the quarantine tank and there was about 50 plus greyish worms with flattish heads slivering all about the glass. They are about 1/4 inch long and I'm assuming they are fluke. there were no sign of them whilst i was vacuuming the gravel then after things settled theres a bizzillion of them.

i am going to hit them with a fluke treatment but whats the go with these things. surely they wouldnt have all came off three small barbs. do they infest the gravel. it was more like the bloody things hatched all of a sudden. I'll need to treat both tanks even though i havent seen any in the bigger tank as the barbs initally came from that tank.

any info appreciated

i kept thinking this was gill fluke but i had treated for it once without seeing them and assumed as the rest did that it was water quality and not fluke doing the killing

Dunluce

 

[Dunluce2]

its seems i may have answered my own question and others may be right. I searched for info on fluke and looked at this

site.http://www.algone.com/worms.htm#flukes

"One rule applies, to calm the nerves of the hobbyist; most worms seen outside the fish are usually not internal parasites and not considered as harmful to the fish. Parasitic or harmful worms will not be visible on the gravel or the glass of the aquarium.

Noticing small white worms the size of a few millimeters crawling along the glass are either flat or roundworms. Flat appearances are planaria (flatworms) and the more thin and wiggly ones are nematodes (roundworms). Both of them do not exceed 4-5 millimeters. Both types are harmless to fish and thrive on excessive nutrients in the water column often resulting from overstocked aquariums.

To free the tank of these worms simply do not feed your fish for 3-4 days as they will often feed on them. Also lower the excess nutrients in the tank to quickly solve the problem."

So maybe after that quote they are right. I am overstocked or over feeding. And water quality was probably still a factor. Does anyone else agree with this quote from the above site??

Dunluce

 

[kveeti]

Does anyone else agree with this quote from the above site??
Dunluce

Definitely agree.

This is an excellent rule to follow. Quoting from:
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/invertebrates/flatworms.shtml
So the moral is, don't worry about the flatworms you can see; they're not going to attack the fish in any way. The rule "If you can see it, it's not a parasite," applies to flatworms.

Quoting RTR in an AC thread:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66895
Parasites are found on a host, and cannot survive without a host. I do not understabd why so many hobbyists think that anything alive in the water which is not a fish or plant is a parasite. A new myth.

More reading:
Good article entitled "The worms!"
http://www3.sympatico.ca/drosera1/fish/worms.htm
"Attack of the Planarians"
http://www.taursys.com/kasha/JAS/Articles/PLANAR.htm

 

[Dunluce2]

Thank you for the response. And I must say after the initial freakout subsided and I could view these creatures in a new light I found them incrediably interesting. I took to checking them out under magnification and it spun me out to realise that they had been in my aquarium without my knowing so.

They move pretty **** quick too. Obviousely I dont wont a flat worm tank but it was an interesting afternoon checking them out. Makes me wonder though why the quarantine tank. Up till designating it as such it was my problem free tank. It was so much smaller thats why it became the quarantine tank. The three barbs seem unable to feed very well. And I still have to attempt to feed them.

Maybe thats why there was a population explosion in the flat worms. If they are no threat I'll leave them alone as in no medications. I'll still try to improve the conditions to limit them. I can see how a bait trap would work as when I feed some minutes later they are out and about.

Another query, I had a great deal of snails in this tank which I didnt mind as they kept the algae under control. But although there still seem to be many there were a mass of snail shells in the gravel when I vacced for the last water change. Do the flat worms attack snails at all. The web page said that they eat left over food and dead or dying fish on the bottom. Would snails evade them.

Dunluce.

PS Still butting my head as to why these three barbs are sick. They pant constantly never fully closing their mouths and seem unable to suck in / nibble their flakes. They do try energetically but dont seem to get much in. I've treated for fluke. Increase my water changes. Increased filtration. All my parameters are good. I am thinking of taking up the motto is it looks sick, kill it. They are not hanging around the outlets or staying near the surface. They are not hiding away. They are slowly losing condition. I assuming its because of their inability to take much food in.