White worms in my shrimp tank

[salexjared]

Saw a lot of white worms crawling in my tank.... on the tank and in the sand.

Also saw white spots (not sure if they are eggs) on the walls and on the stones.

How to get rid of them ?

Got infor from 1 LFS owner to use the net for the worms.
Sweep it and it would curl up and be free floating and then you can net it with the fine net. Did it but still a lot more in the tank.

Any easier and better way than to manually remove them ?

[Shadow]

is it planaria? he head look kind of like arrow, not sure which work will curl up

reduce feeding will help.

[salexjared]

Yeap, that's the one.

I already feed about 3 times a week only.

I will be cutting down the feeding to 1 times per week. Not sure if the CRS have enough food. I guess the algae is sufficient ?

Any medication - is there something called a disease all that would cure this and yet not really kill the CRS ?

[Madmax]

Regular but lesser feed will help. Also, do not add medication to the tank.

[marle]

no to worry, get some boraras and they will eat the planaria happily for you.

Once your shrimps are pregnant, take the boraras out.

[Shadow]

hmm... CRS inside, that make thing difficult. Not sure if boraras will eat planaria, not many fish eat this worm/slug.

Without CRS, I will use those dewormer for human, tried before for my 1ft tank and it work. You can try to use trap. There was a thread on this before, just search for planaria

[marle]

boraras will eat planaria, seen them eating them before.

[salexjared]

Hmmmm.... Will try the staving method first.

But I have heard about the boras doing the job but worried about the shimplets.

Anyway if it do not improve, have to try. I already took the chance to upgrade my infested 1ft to 2ft. But I still have a primary 2ft that is also going down the same path.....

By the way, where do I get the fish. Do not see them around very commonly in LFS.

[kensk]

I prefer doing the hard way.
Drop some hikari crab cruisine into the tank. In no time, these damn planaria will feast on those cubes.
Then I use tubes used for air pump to suck them out.
Every day take out 20 over. Over time, they become lesser and lesser.

[Radiance]

Wah bro Kensk, that's quite an expensive way also...
Lucky planaria

[kaym]

Would using Vermex solution as recommended by Mr Chan of NA be an easier fuss-free way of removing them? Many bros who can vouch on the effectiveness and safety on using it? Especially for a shrimp tank.

[salexjared]

Yeap, the safest way of course is to do it the hard way.

Every night when the lights are off, the worms comes out in doves. Those that end up on the glass I can reach and sweep them up (they curl up and float into the water to be scooped out). Take about 15-20 mins and the job is done for about 20 of them.

Repeat this for a week and control the feeding should do it......

unfortunately I am working overseas and only at home 3 days every forthnight. So the worms grow faster than I can manage it...

Will try the starving method when I am away to control to see if it helps.

For medication, I dare not take the risk.... too expensive a risk for me to take. NO one actually will swear by one type of medication...... it is a trial and error one and there is always some risk especially if your tank is already established and have pregant shrimps and baby shrimplets.

[Shadow]

you have CRS, very sensitive shrimps, don't dare to recomend anything

[kaym]

I starve them, as well as the shrimps, but they still dont die off. I might remove the shrimps then dose the medication and do water changes after that to cleanse the tank to get rid of them. Annoying buggers. Its almost impossible to totally remove them.

[salexjared]

It seems that I may have a leaking tank.

That gives me an excuse to bring in my new 3 or 4 ft tank.

But not sure if I would keep it a purely shrimp tank if going for a big tank.

will see if the leak is really true then have some fun (without complain from family) to redo a new tank.....

Still need to figure out how not to get back this same problem.

Control feeding and..... still wondering where these buggers come from ....