Worms in My Tank

[jasmine_yeo]

I've got skinny wriggly worms in my tank when I use GEX soil with moss on mesh, driftwood & lava rock. Not sure what's happening. The tank has only shrimps & otto fish. Any idea what these worms are & how to get rid of them? On top of worms, there are little tiny white insects in the water. I've tried to suck them out without any success as there's too many of them. Also tried using snail remover but they're still there. Not sure if it's got to do with the Excel I'm using for the moss to have carbon dioxide. I'm using a Hang-on filter. Would appreciate any advise. Thanks!

[himyick]

I believe these white wriggly worms comes together with the GEX soil. I saw them in my new 3ft tank while cycling last month, I used the GEX light green packs. The tank is running with just soil and water for 2-3 weeks and the worms grew into blood worms and some eventually developed into midges.
They disappear after adding in the fishes though, for obvious reasons I guess. As this is my first time using GEX soil, I wasn't sure if this is the norm.

[felix_fx2]

hi , believe their called thread worms. very normal to see them.

jasmine: you cannot permanently remove the tiny insects and thread worms but you can keep them in check.

You should read this up (Source: www.plantedtank.net )

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ght=white+worm

himyick: its a norm to see them sometimes, i've seen mine have them too. But since my fauna was introduced they seldom can be seen

[jasmine_yeo]

Thanks for the advise. Really helpful.

[seanskye]

I got the worms and insects only when I introduced moss into one of my CRS nano tanks after 2 months.

[beetroot]

The thread worms do come with the soil.. have some in my tank that's being cycled without any livestock.

But when you say there are too many of them in your shrimp-only tank, that could be a sign of overfeeding. Had that experience before too, perhaps from hidden uneaten food. Had to put a fish in....

The little tiny white insects... are they jumpy little creatures? Those are cyclops - harmless, always appear when there's no fish to eat them.

[jasmine_yeo]

Thanks! Was wondering if it was the soil that brought the insects or the excel. I'll try to cut down on the food fed & see if that works. Alternatively, put in some fish occasionally to clear it.

[stormhawk]

Well if their eggs were present in the plants or even the GEX soil, they will appear very frequently. I don't mind the Cyclops and the other copepods. They make great food for my smaller fishes.

The tiny worms that you see can be any kind of polychaete/nematode worm. Very common in the early stages of a tank. You should be worried more if the worms turn out to be the dreaded flatworms instead.

[guppylove]

put pleco, otto or put salt

[stormhawk]

Pleco do not eat these worms, and neither do Otos. Salt is not a cure-all and can cause stress to other fishes and shrimp, not to mention some plants are not very tolerant of salt.

Keeping the gravel clean and removing detritus during water changes is better, along with not overfeeding and removing uneaten food after a few hours.

[Blue Whale]

Stormy is correct. Too much Salt give rise to corrosion of the tank, once the tank is busted you will end up with more headaches.

otto tends to disturb your shrimps...kajiao kajiao. Perhaps if you come across Blue Eye Tetra or Cardinals (Not the 10 for $1 kind; 10 for maybe $8-10), try about 4 or 6 of them. Tetra do not disturb the otto or the shrimps that much, curious enough to investigate around. Blue Eye Tetra tends to be a community Big brother and will act like a tour guide to other new fishes. I would go for Blue Eye Tetra but as CNY approaches, the number of LFS selling them is getting lesser ad lesser so it depends on your luck. Another name would be Lamp Eye Tetra for Blue Eye Tetra

Another good fish around would be Scarlet Badis. Even more tiny than an average otto, very very curious, very very stupid and cute looking. You can scroll down the page for the blown up pictures.
http://www.future-digital.com/aquari...o_dario_7.html

Price of Scarlet Badis and Cardinals are almost of the same.

[jasmine_yeo]

I put a zebra danio in my tank & the wriggly worms are gone. However, still have issue of flat worms. I've changed my filter to a cannister one & hopefully the worms would go away. Also, I got a gravel cleaner - not sure if this would help to clean up the base of the tank as well - I'm using black gravel as base. Any ideas/suggestions whether this helps?

[Blue Whale]

Put some live tubifex worms. Train the fish to eat worms =) How about that?

After they are trained to eat worms...stop feeding for a day or two. Do your observation. This is one of the evil plan that I can come up with for you at the moment ^__^ The natural "aggressive negotiation" way...heh heh.

[jasmine_yeo]

Will the fish subsequently be feasting on my shrimps? Also, I don't want to introduce tubifex worms - got to feed only 2 fish in a shrimp tank.

[Blue Whale]

Oh well...nice try here. I guess you can't grow tubifex worms too...since you need a pump, change the smelly water...50cents of worms might be too much for your tank, mine took 10mins for all the worms to disappear.

Ok, next battle plan. Look for very very decomposed driftwood. Change it.

If all plans here FAILED, what to do? Somemore for you, for shrimp sake, be very careful with salt:
http://www.aquariumfish.net/informat...trouble_p2.htm

[jasmine_yeo]

Thanks for the advise, Blue Whale. Unlikely to be using salt. I don't have very decomposed driftwood in my tank either but will try the gravel washer - waiting for my shrimp to complete laying her eggs & for the eggs to hatch before I try that.