White Worms

[Mat]

These worms are crawling all over the tank and I mean everywhere. They are about 1 mm to 1 cm in length and crawl around the glass sides, over the plants, and are all through the gravel. For those of you who have cats, they look like the worms that crawl outta their butts... and move like them as well. They don't seem to be harming the fish, shrimp or plants that are in the tank but they are small and fairly new to the tank so I'm not positive yet.Sorry I can't give you a pic or anything, but I don't have the means to do that.My tank is a 5 gallon has 18 Cherry Shrimp and 2 Otocinclus. It has a DIY Co2 system and the temp is set at 78. I'm not sure that that info would be of any use but meh you never know.

[IPZ]

Hi Mat,

Those nasty yet harmelss worms are caused by over feeding. Put a couple of cory cats in there and they should be gone within the week.

Cheers...

Scott

[Mat]

Really? Overfeeding? I think the first bit of food I put in there was 2 days ago when I put a chunk of Zuc in there for the Otocinclus. Otherwise I just let the little guys clean the algea off of the tank and plants. Cory cats huh? Will they eat baby shrimp? Cause I have 3 Cherry Shrimp that are Prego. And I am a little excited to see the little dudes swimming around. :o)

[TKD]

Yes the corries will eat baby shrimp...

What happend to the other 2 shrimp?

I have those worms to... they just started so I'm not sure were they came from.
I squish them when I get the chance.

TKD

[Jacques]

Mat, those sound like planaria. They can get into your tank hitch-hiking on new plants, so always disinfect new plants. Also, after disinfecting, and then rinsing, leave the plants in a bowl or bucket of water for awhile, to watch for these and other critters. A white container shows off critters well. Hopefully, any critters seen are now dead, but if not, disinfect again with a stronger solution, or for more time. I used to use a disinfectant solution of alum or potassium permanganate, but now use bleach (1:19, for 2 minutes).

Here's a good little article, with pics (translated from Dutch), that I found with Google Images for "planaria aquarium":
http://www.waterwereld.nu/platwormeng.html

And here's another one, that I just used plain Google for, which mentions that planaria are TOXIC TO SHRIMP!!
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/...ria_Worms.html

[Sneaky]

I have planaria too at times. It comes and goes.
Its just a small flatworm that feeds on extra food on the
glass or hood.
Its harmless to anything you keep and will be eaten by fish.
Lessen feeding if you want them to go away.

Oh, and they dont like harmful water conditions, so
tend to only populate clear, clean aquariums with a little
bit extra food.

[Mat]

I woke up this morning and those worms aren't anywhere I can see. Gone, just like that. Do you think the Otocinclus ate them? Oh well. I've got another question for you guys/girls. On the out spout of the DIY Co2 there was a white-ish transparent blob forming. I vaccumed it up a couple of days ago cause, well, it couldn't be a good thing. Anyways it came back the next day so I did another water change and yesterday it was back. So I vaccumed it up again and today it seems to have gone the way of the worms... gone, gone without a trace. Does anybody know what that could have been? It wasn't in the Co2 tube, just around the end of it.

[Aquariumgirl]

Probably just CO2 bubbles, I'm guessing.

[Mat]

Naw it was all wispy like a spider web and the Co2 bubbles had to fight there way through.

[Jacques]

I've read that some fish do eat planaria, but that they also move into the gravel, or down around the bases of plants, where there might be food for them.

As for that blob, that sounds like the stuff that formed on my CO2 diffuser (ceramic stone), a few weeks ago. It was kind of gelatinous, and whitish-translucent. I scraped it off, and it hasn't come back.

But now there's tiny, white specks all over my driftwood and Amazon Plant leaves that are near the diffuser. I never saw these specks before I started adding CO2, so I suspect they (and the "blob") are some form of calcium carbonate that has precipitated out of the water, due to a chemical reaction with the CO2. Since my water is very soft, the only source of calcium carbonate I can think of is my gravel; it has some bits of shell mixed into it. My chemistry is very rusty, so that's as far as I can go with this theory! Anyway, one of these days, I guess I'll have to tear down the whole tank, and replace that gravel! :(

Mat, do you have any shell, or any other source of calcium carbonate in your tank?

[Michael L.]

That slime stuff is commonly referred to as "yeast snot." Basically, it is caused by your DIY CO2 overflowing for a short period of time and then shooting some of the yeast mixture into the water. It won't harm the fish- they will actually eat it in some cases.

As far as planaria goes, I actually try to introduce it to my tanks. I occasionally intentionally culture some and scrape it into my main tanks. They are hard to see from any amount of distance and to people who don't go right up to the tank. They are pretty effective cleaners that just get eaten by the fish in the end anyways.

Happy Fishkeeping!

[Mat]

Thanks for the info, I figured it was something to do with the DIY Co2 so the next time I set it up I didn't put as much water in as before. and the "blob" hasn't returned. But to answer an earlier question, yes I do have shells in my substrate.