Tiny, tiny white 'bugs', what the heck are they!?

[20 20]

My boy has a 75 gallon discus tank with 7 discus in it, and one small motoro (I think) stingray. He's been treating the tank with 'Pemifix' and 'Melafix' (again, I think that's how they're spelled) for about a week and a half for fungus on the stingray. Well, tonight he notices a bunch of fine 'stuff' in the tank. A lot of it, swirling around in the water. No idea what it is, he stick on a HOB filter stuffed with floss to try and filter it out. Oh, yeah, he runs an XP3 on the tank. Not sure of the water parameters, he doesn't measure them very often. I think PH is around 7 to 7.5, but I could be wrong.

Well, a couple of hours later, he yells "Dad, come here! They're alive!" And sure enough, all these floating things in the water are little white wiggly 'things'. Very small, gotta watch real close to see them move, but believe me, they're alive. Does anyone have any idea what the heck they can be, how they got in the tank, and how can they be gotten rid of?

Thanks!

[Merrilyn]

Sounds like planaria, a little white wiggly worm that is usually found in the gravel but can become free swimming when the gravel is disturbed, as during water changes.

Sounds like you have quite a population of them. They actually do no harm, and guppies love to eat them, but the easiest way to cut the population down, is to reduce the feeding for a week (they thrive in overfed tanks) and thoroughly vacuum the gravel several times over the next few days.

You never get rid of all of them. The best you can hope for is to reduce the numbers.

Good luck.

[wickedglass]

I got these white wormy things recently. And in number I have to say they're very detrimental! I'm not sure is they're planaria or nematodes, but they are wiggly white worms. I went away for 3 days and didn't remember the lessons I've learned from my earlier days of fishkeeping and fed heaps before I went away because I knew I was going. I'd gotten 15 new discus babies the day bebfore from Crocky and had 5 discus already in there. When I got back from my 3 days away, to my horror, ALL the discus were huddling in a corner. I didn't realise what was going on until I turned off the lights in the room and with only the room lights on, it became apparent that my tank was infested with little white worms aswimming freely in the water (the tank was actually cloudy with them)! All my discus were huddling together in a corner of the tank, their fins white on the edges and almost black, they were so stressed. All the other fish looked haggard too. The first to buy the farm was my beautiful bristlenose male, and everybody else soon followed that path, despite all my efforts to save them and damage control. The only foish that survived were my peckoltia, my pleco and the bristlenose male. Don't underestimate the white worms. Salt will kill them, but after 3 days, for myt fish it was too late! I'm still suffering from that disaster and haven't touched a discus since (I've had an 8 year break from fishkeeping until January). my lesson is learned (agiabn) and I'm working my way up to getting some more from Crosky in a few weeks.
Keep an eye on them ... macropodes and bettas will eat them, but if they get out of hand, all their efforts will comew to not enough!
But! what I had, might be different to your situatiuon so assess again and if the problem isn't too bad (they exist in the tank anyway in small numbers) then don't be too worried! but if your water is cloudy with them like mine and your fish react negatively towards them, then adding some saltis a good idea imo!

[wickedglass]

sorry about the typos, I got hit by a mercedes today, riding my pushbike :( I'm sore and not tracking well

[20 20]

Thanks for the replies. So, cut down on the feeding. Will running the HOB filter stuffed with floss help 'catch' them?

[DiscusMad]

i over feed a little on my fry tanks and the bubs love them!

[Merrilyn]

sorry about the typos, I got hit by a mercedes today, riding my pushbike :( I'm sore and not tracking well

Ohhhh Chris :shock: so sorry to hear that.

How are you feeling now mate.

Best wishes for a quick recovery. :(


20 20 The HOB filter will catch some of them, but certainly not all of them.
Gravel vacuuming every day for a week or so is the way to go.

[Crocky]

Hi Chris, (We met at Rayanne Aquarium) - I too have been hit by a car whilst ridding my bike (not a mercedes.... lucky you) and spent the night in hospital and twenty stitches later, I finally recovered but I know how sore you would be thank god for helmets!.
Brad's wife Jo.

[Crocky]

Brad - Just told me its Rayonne NOT Rayanne Aquarium - Brads the fish minded person around here not me!
Jo

[20 20]

I think he'll be doing gravel vacs frequently for the next week. The HOB filter did a good job, quite a bit less of the little buggers in the water now. He changed out the floss, it was quite dirty.

[Ben]

sorry about the typos, I got hit by a mercedes today, riding my pushbike Sad I'm sore and not tracking well!

geeez taksan! :shock:

[wickedglass]

hi guys,
sorry don't want to highjack the topic, but I'm ok. I corked my thigh terribly and it's still pretty sore now and I can finally straighten my elbow again. My head (with helmet on) managed to hit absolutely nothing. All considered, I came off easily...I'm almost a bit disappointed that with all this pain I don't even have any bruises, just a couple of scrapes. It was the driver's fault, not mine, as I had a green light and she turned into me without looking. Oh, well, as soon as I got new wheels I'm riding again, but it shocked the boots off me! Considering my track record ... this is about the 3rd life I've used up in traffic (none of the accidents were my fault, either) ... I've been leading a charmed life! One of the accidents I've been in, involved an army truck and looked like a war-zone afterwards. There were about 15 or so people injured, I was right in the middle of it (no, I wasn't in the army truck). It was horrible, there was blood on the road everywhere from pedestrians and my car was totalled (the truck ended up on top of my car) ... luckily no one died, although there were some pretty bad injuries ... and I came out with a slight cut on one of my fingers!
Cross my fingers ...
I got 6 more lives to go, I'm one lucky cat(fish)

[aquafrogstuff]

wickedglass

would you mind checking my recent post http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6609

I think we have the same problem. The 'bugs' in my tank appear small, white and round. They're still there after weeks. Fish all seem OK, but they really bug me (excuse the pun). Just want to get rid them. Have you tried formadahyde?