coffeebean

my little daughter was watching the fish and noticed TONS of teeny tiny little white worms on the glass. they are no bigger then this letter l , but thinner. they are only on the very bottom portion of the glass. what the heck are they? how did they get there? are they going to harm my fish? and how do I get rid of them??
help PLEASE!!??!!

Shawnie

they sound like planaria...normally harmless and the fishies love them...google them and see if thats what it is

haedra

Since it is hard to get a picture of things that small, do a few google searches for planaria in aquariums and see if those pics resemble what you are looking at. From your description, that is what it sounds like. Planaria aren't directly harmful to fish (in fact, some will eat them), but are usually a sign of overfeeding. I say "usually" because I have now seen them twice, both about 2 weeks into new tanks, in which I was certain I wasn't overfeeding. When you find planaria, decrease your feeding somewhat, and be more careful about gravel vacs. When their food source is reduced, their population will reduce.

*edit* Shawnie beat me to the punch!

charlie123

Good thing there are not hook worms. PHEW.....sounds like the planaria though.

coffeebean

what are hook worms?

these things are sooooooooooooo small, by husband cant see them, he thinks we are crazy. I never see any uneaten food in the tank. we have 4 yoyo loaches and 2 plecos and the angelfish are such pigs they will even eat something off the bottom....though my daughter can be a culprit as she does like to put a bottom feeder tablet in and i have seen her sneak them in.
i scrubbed the glass and will do a gravel vac.

Shawnie

planaria is usually from overfeeding or a rise in ammonia...so alot of new tanks get them when going thru the cycle process or if our lil children try to help feeding LOL (my granddaughter is famous for ahem, helping )...how old is the tank? and im sure if thats what they are, the loaches and angels should eat them right up..the extra gravel vac will help aslo

coffeebean

4 weeks, did the silent cycle method with plants. ammonia is unreadable.