worms in my gravel

[angel383]

I need help. I went on vacation over the weekend, so I didn't get to do my weekly partial water change on Sunday. I came home yesterday evening, and did the water change today. While using the gravel vacuum I noticed worms being siphoned into my bucket. These worms were in the gravel, they varied in length (an inch an a half long maximum). I probably siphoned less than a dozen out. They are thin, and appear to be brown/red. They aren't on the plants or fish, just buried in the gravel.

They are only in my 5 gallon tank, not in my 20 or 30 gallon tanks. I do weekly water changes, usually one or two gallons (in the 5 gallon tank). Today I took out probably 3 or 4 gallons.

I've read suggestions saying to stop feeding the fish for 3 or 4 days, but the problem is this is my baby tank. I have 4 nonfancy guppies (that are probably adults now), 1 silver molly baby, and 8 sunset fire platy / sunset fire wag platys (they are mostly sunset fire platys). I feed them small amount three times daily. I don't think they could survive skip meals for 3 or 4 days.

My first thought was to thoroughly siphon the gravel, and likely have to add new water several times during this process, since it's a small tank. But it has an undergravel filter too. Is there a chemical I could add to kill these worms? Or should I tear the tank down? Any other suggestions are welcome.

 

[cyberbeer65]

Sounds like planaria,witch are completely harmless.

Planaria are usually a resut of overfeeding and poor water quality.I would cut down your feeding to once a day.Do you have your water parameters handy?

 

[Pallen81]

I had these same worms myself for a long long time. I used to feed my black ghost knife live bloodworms. I don't know if it came from them or some other way but I had worms living in my gravel. They were always harmless as far as I could tell.

If you do wanna get rid of them... my only guess would be to siphon as best as you can. Get down real deep. Since your tank is very small, I highly doubt you should have any problems sucking them all up. Good luck.

 

[bettagurl]

im not sure what kind of worms they are,but you porbably should take the gravel out and get new gravel.save as much of the water as you can,put the babies in a hospital tank over night after you change tha gravel,keep the same deecor and filter media to keep a healthY bacteria culture.if you were to get rid of everything and put new stuff the babies would probably die of a too clean tank,i hope everything works out! BETTAGURL

 

[DeRo316]

Sounds like planaria,witch are completely harmless.

I agree, used to get them in my 29. Just do some gravel vacs and change the water a little more than often, cut down on the feeding and you should be good. Mine just disappeared(died) because the waste and food they were feeding on was gone after I increased cleanings. They used to be on my glass too, it was annoying.

you porbably should take the gravel out and get new gravel.

I would dissagree with this unless you find out its not planaria.

 

[hike13]

I agree, used to get them in my 29. Just do some gravel vacs and change the water a little more than often, cut down on the feeding and you should be good. Mine just disappeared(died) because the waste and food they were feeding on was gone after I increased cleanings. They used to be on my glass too, it was annoying.


I would dissagree with this unless you find out its not planaria.

I had the same thing a few months back. I cut back on feedings and did an additional midweek partial change along with my weekend vaacuum. After a few weeks they stopped coming up through the siphon. Haven't seen any in about 2 months. And I agree with you DeRo about the gravel change. That would probably be a last resort option for me.

 

[plah831]

Right, and a change of gravel would probably send your tank into a mini-cycle.

I've had planaria, too, but mine were white. I have no idea how they got there, but they always stayed near the gravel (sometimes on the glass) and never hurt anything.

Planaria are flatworms (Platyhelminthes). You can identify them in that they are, well, flat. Nematodes are round in cross-section and tapered at the ends, and tapeworms are flat, too, but they're very long and have segments. Those last two are the more common parasites that you would see in fish.

Gill flukes are a type of flatworm, too, but I dont' think you would actually see those loose in the gravel.

 

[liv2padl]

changing the gravel will not work. (a) you'll never get ALL the worms out and leaving only 1 or 2 will quickly result in 200 more within a month if you continue your current maintainance habits. i'd guess they're nematodes.

There are approximately 10,000 to 10,000,000 species in the Phylum Nematoda. Free-living (ie without a 'host') forms can reach sizes between 1mm to 2 cm (0.04"- 0.8"). Nematodes that live in the aquarium usually reside in the gravel, but when disturbed they swim in a snake like manner. Much like that of a sea snake. They can be easily seen in a bucket after cleaning the gravel.

There are three types of nematodes: parasitic, scavengers and herbivores. The vast majority of nematodes are parasitic and all three are able to live within the aquarium; the scavenger nematodes are usually the most common.

Not all nematodes are a menace in the aquarium, the scavenger nematodes can help break down the organic waste in the aquarium. vacuuming the gravel will eliminate the problem of organic waste however and why have worms which add to the biodensity of the tank.

Nematodes can be introduced to the aquarium in egg or adult form. Eggs can be present in almost anything that you add to your aquarium; feeders, live plants, driftwood etc. Adult worms are more likely to be introduced by live plants and in the water accompanying your feeder fish.

as others have said, populations of nematodes can be reduced or elimated by reduced feedings and increased water changes and gravel vacuuming.

 

[Alestro Bakai]

And here's the NON "tree-hugging hippy-let's-not-throw-some-chemicals-into-the-tank" way:

Quick Cure

It'll kill anything that's not supposed to be in your tank, including some that are supposed to be there, within 3 days.

Any strange worm: will die, no doubt about it
Ghost Shrimp and other invertebrae: will most likely die
Scaless fish: could die, none of mine died
Plants: could get harmed, none of mine did
Good bacterias, responsible for your cycle: will be fine