# Worms?!!!!



## llogan (Apr 5, 2010)

My fish had a mild case of ich about 2wk ago, it seems to have cleared up but im finding little white worms all over my tank glass, they re very thin and under 5mm long, i feea flake and have giving liquifry for about 4 days last week due to some platy fry arriving, it said on the info sheet not to worry as they live in sand and are attracted to the liquifry but i have gravel not sand, how can i get rid of these, is there any treatments i can buy or use, any advice please


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

The most common worm that you will get in a tank is planaria. Planaria will not harm your fish, but can be unsightly as you see. They are very difficult to get rid of and anything that will instantly kill them will hurt your fry, and any other inverts you have. I would keep the tank VERY VERY clean until your fry get bigger, or you can move the fry out. After that, if you have no inverts, you can use chemicals to clear them out. The pet store should have something to solve that.


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## llogan (Apr 5, 2010)

Well my fry are prety big already, at 2 weeks the smallest is 1cm long they are prety big compared to the last lots of fry so how big is considered SAFE, and i was wondering about my plecs to as i know theyr sensitive. Im hoping to get a dwarf crayfish and want to get rid of them before that. Some one told me not to feed my fish for a few days and theyd eat them but i havn't seen them nibbling them on their gap day. I swooshed the gravel last night and they al stuck to the glass and my breeder, there are millions of them. I do have a gravel hoover but i need to get a piece of tubing for it. Any treatment names?


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

llogan said:


> Well my fry are prety big already, at 2 weeks the smallest is 1cm long they are prety big compared to the last lots of fry so how big is considered SAFE, and i was wondering about my plecs to as i know theyr sensitive. Im hoping to get a dwarf crayfish and want to get rid of them before that. Some one told me not to feed my fish for a few days and theyd eat them but i havn't seen them nibbling them on their gap day. I swooshed the gravel last night and they al stuck to the glass and my breeder, there are millions of them. I do have a gravel hoover but i need to get a piece of tubing for it. Any treatment names?


copersafe will kill anything without a spine but can be harmfull to scaleless fish so if you dont have scaleless fish you should be good! remember coppersafe will last for an entire month in your tank so dont add any scaleless fish or inverts for a month only real way to get rid of it is to do frequent water changes.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

coppersafe will not kill planaria I believe. Coppersafe is more targeted towards organisums with a exoskeleton which is why it harms shrimp and snails as well. In my cell biology lab I actually picked coppersafe to test on nematode worm C. elegans. Copper is toxic to them somewhat, but what I didn't take into consideration was that they were attracted to sulfate. With the structure Cu(SO4)2, coppersafe actually proved to be an attractant. Even at 100% concentration. 

The best way to get rid of planaria is to keep the tank clean. They are harmless and are only noticeable when you have excess waste in the tank. These things are actually in almost every aquarium. Usually in low unnoticeable numbers, and usually hard to see. Them being noticeable just reflect that their is a issue with your feeding or maintenance. Or some times you can find the big planaria. This is the 3rd planaria I have found that is over 1cm long! I move them to my paludarium, cuz they are neat.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

You SAVE the planaria? I always knew there was something strange about you.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

Oh Shush I'm halfway through getting my bio major. I save the giant planaria, they will be on my zoology final in too weeks. They can also be a tasty snack for what ever fish or shrimp that comes across them. That one spent 2 weeks in a dish with some fish eggs. I got planaria, nematodes and a number of copepods that inhabit my tanks if you look hard enough. Especially when you turn the lights on first thing in the morning. They would be in any natural aquatic environment in the wild. I occasionally find things like 1/4" tetra fry in my tanks that have been feeding on them. Anyone raising micro worms, vinegar eels, rotifers and many other live fry foods are basically raising the same thing just different species.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

You SAVE the planaria? I always knew there was something strange about you.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Tiny nematodes are infinitely more common in fishtanks than planarians, and I'm pretty sure they're what are in this tank. I don't what chemicals are available in Scotland, but any orthophosphate or flubendazole type med should do the trick. Praziquantel might even work. 
A good tank cleaning will remove them for a little while, but they'd return.

Planarians are totally cool, if you ask me. They are fun subjects for experimentation. Did you know that you can teach them things? It's true. That's not the weird part, though. If you chop up a worm that has learned some nifty trick and them feed it's parts to other worms, those other worms will suddenly know the same trick!!! How cool is that?
I used to like splitting them halfway, lengthwise, so that they'd regenerate into mutants with as many as 16 heads and tails.
Around here we have a few terrestrial species which live under rotten logs. They are extraordinarily sticky and slimy, and can reach nearly a foot long! 
You know the crazy cool colors that arrow poison frogs have? There are some giant planarians in asia, malaysia especially, that get over two feet long and 4 inches wide, and they have the same types of colors. Truly awesome! I don't know why they aren't popular in the pet trade.


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

Mikaila31 said:


> coppersafe will not kill planaria I believe. Coppersafe is more targeted towards organisums with a exoskeleton which is why it harms shrimp and snails as well. In my cell biology lab I actually picked coppersafe to test on nematode worm C. elegans. Copper is toxic to them somewhat, but what I didn't take into consideration was that they were attracted to sulfate. With the structure Cu(SO4)2, coppersafe actually proved to be an attractant. Even at 100% concentration.
> 
> The best way to get rid of planaria is to keep the tank clean. They are harmless and are only noticeable when you have excess waste in the tank. These things are actually in almost every aquarium. Usually in low unnoticeable numbers, and usually hard to see. Them being noticeable just reflect that their is a issue with your feeding or maintenance. Or some times you can find the big planaria. This is the 3rd planaria I have found that is over 1cm long! I move them to my paludarium, cuz they are neat.


i dont know if it has anything to do with an exoskeleton it may just be that the worms are resistent to coppersafe because coppersafe will kill corals/anemonies


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