Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Mervyn on November 13, 2012, 04:22:52 PM
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My tank is still cycling and I have found 4 baby snails over the last couple of weeks and they have been dispatched.
I noticed not long ago a small, maybe half an inch, worm like creature. It was very thin and swimming/wriggling quite fast. It was sucked into the filter system.
Did not have much chance to look at it but it seemed to be a muddy green colour. It is two weeks since the plants went in and they were all stem cuttings from the LFS.
The gravel was ready bagged and I gave it all a good rinsing before I put it in the tank.
Has anyone any ideas?? I don't want nasties in the tank for when I start stocking it.
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Plants can have quite a few hitch-hikers on them. That's why a lot of companies treat them with chemicals; shrimp killing chemicals. They don't always work on the hitch-hikers as your snails show.
My first reaction about the worm was to say planaria, harmless, but then I noticed the colour. Planaria are usually white and as thin as a hair. The thing you saw is the wrong colour and at half an inch maybe a bit too big. Just how thin was thin? A hair? Thicker than that?
Have you tried looking in the filter for it? Though that's not terribly easy with the Juwel filter as when you take out all the media, there's water left in the bottom where it could be hiding.
As you can tell, I can't say for sure what it was. Most of the wormy things are harmess, and when you get fish they'll eat them. There are a few exceptions but they are not common.
As I can't find any articles on worms on this site, have a look at this link and see if you can ID it
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/invertebrates-nematodes
There are a few other wormy things in the menu on the left of that page
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Hi Sue and thanks,
I would say it was thicker than a hair. But I only had a brief view of it....before it went into the filter housing.
Mind you,it either survived that, and was expelled out of the outflow, or I have more than one.
I say a muddy green colour, although I am 99% certain I scooped it up in my net, I could not see it in the net,meaning it either went straight through the mesh, or was a white colour, and I could not see it in there.
As I did the water change the day before and stirred up the substrate, that is probably where it/they come from.
I have certainly seen some very,very minute things that look like very tiny snails. If so I will catch them when they are bigger and sliding down the glass. ;D
As for the wriggly things I have no idea but obviously hoping that they are good for my tank environment. ;)
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Hi,
Just noticed it again and this time under lighting and it does look white, but I would say it is about 1/2" long.
But then again I am male and you all know what our estimates of size is. :P
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Common worms in tanks are:
planaria - these are very small and hair-thin, white and are found crawling on the glass. When you have fish, they are a sign of overfeeding. A type of flatworm.
nematodes - a type of roundworm. Thread like worms that thrash aound in the water. You can cultivate some types eg microworms as fry food.
Both of these are harmless, except the parasitic ones but you never see them in the water, they always live in the digestive tract of fish.
The only 'nasty' worms I can think of are leeches, but these cling on to surfaces rather than float in the water. They are not like white hairs. Unless your worm is crawling around on something and elongates itself to move, a bit like an earthworm, I don't think it's a leech.
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Thanks Sue, no whenever I see it, it is moving reasonably fast in the flow wriggling with up & down movements. :D
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You are all going to think that I am paranoid :o
But I know nothing about what should be happening and be ok in the tank. An update on these small worm things!! They appear to be flat rather than round.
Now I have noticed other tiny creatures. They are white, and extremely tiny and they are moving around in fits and starts but very fast. I notice them more when they are shooting down the glass but also notice them in open water areas of the tank.
I hope that they are not harmful as I am in my 4th week of cycling and really do not want to empty/clean or sterilize the tank unless absolutely essential. :-[
Apart from this the cycle is going well and the water looks crystal clear. ;)
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Since it's difficult to ID things without a photo - and these worms are impossible to photograph - here is a link for you to browse through in case you can match your worms. Click on non-arthopoda and work your way through the menu on the left. I know it's for Alberta, but anything we can use will be a help
http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/Projects/Aquatic_Invertebrates/index.php
The entries for the various types of worm have drawings after all the text, you might need to look at your tank with a magnifying glass :)
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Thanks Sue I will take a look at the link.
If they stopped moving I could photo them :P but I only have a DSLR and if I put it on Macro It would not be able to focus due to the glass.
What about the little white things? could they be some sort of water flea?? Wish I had read up about soaking new plants in some sort of solution before I planted them.
It is amazing though that life appears so quickly in ordinary water.
Thanks again.