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View Full Version : Those tiny wiggly worms in your tank !



samir
Thu May 25, 2006, 09:10 AM
I see a lot of desperate pleas for help so I decided to post some information from elsewhere. May not agree with everything there but its a good guide in general.

Planaria

What are Planaria?
Have you ever looked into your tank and seen tiny little white things wriggling through the water or crawling on your glass? If so, you are likely seeing Planaria. Planaria are a type of flatworm; Platyhelminthes phylum.
Before you get too upset about having flatworms in your aquarium, take a deep breath. Planaria are harmless to your fish. But don't get too complacent about their presence, either. There are a few things you should be aware of . . .

Why are They in My Tank?
Planaria tend to crop up in aquariums where there is an excess of food and waste decaying in the gravel beds. This rotting waste is their food source. So you see, while the planaria themselves are harmless they are a symptom of a larger problem.
This problem being, specifically, that uneaten food and fish waste releases ammonia as it rots. Ammonia is toxic and often lethal to fish. In a well-maintained and cycled aquarium the normal output of ammonia from uneaten food and fish waste is converted to less harmful substances by the colonies of good nitrifying bacteria built up in the tank. However, if you're seeing planaria then chances are that the problem has gone on long enough that the nitrifying bacteria is no longer present and your ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate levels are almost surely at a dangerous level now. Your fish may be experiencing health problems, behavioral changes, and ammonia poisoning at this point. As you've realized by now, planaria are warning signs that you need to re-evaluate your tank maintenance routine.

How Do I Get Rid of Them and Fix My tank?
The only real way to get rid of them is to remove their food source, striking at the root of the problem. To do this you'll need to do the following things:

* do 15-25% water changes every day for the next week
* Make sure you use a gravel vacuum when doing water changes so that you know you're getting it clean. If you never use a gravel vacuum, that's part of your problem.
* You may have too much gravel in your tank. If this is the case it is providing too much space for food/waste to decay in. That makes it harder to clean during water changes and harder for the filter to suck out particles. You should never exceed 1/4 of an inch of gravel on the bottom of your tank. If you have more than that, you'll need to get rid of some.
* Adding aquarium salt can help in some cases also. (Do not exceed 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of water). However, if you keep invertibrates or scaleless fish in your tank you should skip on the salt as it can hurt or kill them.
* Test you ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels every day to ensure that they go down and stay in safe levels.

How To Make Sure They Don't Come Back
If you're having planaria problems it's time to start trouble-shooting your maintenance methods. Below are some of the things you should be doing on a regular basis to keep your tank healthy and planaria-free:
* weekly 25% water changes
* using a gravel vacuum each and every time you do water changes
* Don't overfeed your fish. You should only feed them as much as they can eat in 5 minutes. If you're seeing a substantial amount of food left over after they're done eating it's time to start cutting back.
* Test your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels once a week. If you start to see you nitrates climbing (or heaven forbid, your nitrites or ammonia) you'll need to do some water changes.
* Make sure you don't have too much gravel. You only need 1/4 of an inch evenly spread.

mcloughlin2
Thu May 25, 2006, 09:21 AM
Mate better watch out for copyright...ALOT of sites will have it on any information on there site... :wink:

Great post btw

samir
Thu May 25, 2006, 09:25 AM
its my right to copy :lol: :lol: and paste :lol: :lol:

Proteus
Thu May 25, 2006, 12:43 PM
Please provide a link where the article came from, and provide credit to the author please. It is the right thing to do.

marg
Thu May 25, 2006, 09:42 PM
Perhaps someone should make this a sticky also, as I have noticed from time to time people have this problem - might save a lot of unecessary worry.,

Regards,

Marg.

mcloughlin2
Thu May 25, 2006, 09:53 PM
Samir, Perhaps instead of creating numerous threads why dont you just create one thread with links to the site?

For example,

Whitespot treatment,

( Put the link )

Fin Rot

( Put the link )

Get me?

:D

samir
Fri May 26, 2006, 12:08 AM
okay point taken. they are all from numerous different sites. it would be easier to read the one page than go to 20 different links.if you like i shall put the links up in future.

Merrilyn
Fri May 26, 2006, 06:32 AM
Thanks Samir. We just like to give credit where it's due.

Great articles you're finding btw. Keep up the good work. I'll put all these articles together in a separate forum soon, so all our frequently asked questions are in one place.

marg
Fri May 26, 2006, 07:24 AM
Great idea Merrilyn.

Regards,

Marg.

samir
Fri May 26, 2006, 07:29 AM
Thanks Merrilyn, Marg :)

andy_s
Wed May 31, 2006, 11:58 AM
Thanks Samir, i've been keeping discus for around 12 mths and only recently have had the same problem.

I've treated it for anchor gill (twice) and ripped out all my planting in case it was eggs within the roots etc.

From your post it looks like it was my sand base (about 3 inches deep) - i took that out about 1 week ago and the problem seems to have gone.

It's just nice to know the cause of the problem :D

worliman
Tue Jul 11, 2006, 07:56 AM
hi samir,

worliman again, i think i am haveing the same problem ?, thanx once again. keep up da good work.

worliman

oscar
Sun Jul 30, 2006, 11:28 PM
Quarter inch of substrate :shock:

Cripes. :?

actinicblue
Tue May 06, 2008, 08:47 AM
good info! thanks

montelovers
Thu Apr 01, 2010, 04:43 PM
We were also suggested to use pearl gouramis to take care of our problem with a couple of tanks. After introducing a small pair in each of the tanks, the problem (planaria) disappeared after 2 days. Haven't seen any planaria reappear either.
We move the gouramis to the affected tanks as needed. When they're done, we move them back out to the community tank. Worked like a charm.. for us anyway.

Ghoti
Tue Jun 22, 2010, 02:55 AM
Is this planaria thing particular to Discus?

I've had community tropicals in planted tanks and malawi cichlids and always had at least 10cm (4 inches) of substrate and never seen these worms. However I do weekly water changes and maintain ammonia and nitrites at zero (or very little over) and nitrates below 40ppm.

good luck, good management or just yet to have discus?

Cheers,
Scott

swampy1972
Tue Jun 22, 2010, 07:45 AM
I've heard the Shrimp keepers talking about planaria, so I'm not sure they're specific to Discus. I've only seen them once in my tanks.

BigDaddyAdo
Tue Jun 22, 2010, 07:37 PM
They have nothing to do with the fish. They can appear in any tank.

AhBee562
Tue Oct 05, 2010, 07:09 PM
good info :0 i learned somthing today haha

newdiscusfanatics
Wed Jun 19, 2013, 11:35 AM
Hi any advice on getting rid of nematodes with out risk of harming fish?