john&jen

I am going to be as descriptive as possible on this one. I scraped all the walls of my 75gal tank and did a 25% water change. I vaccuumed the gravel on one side. There is a piece of driftwood and several live plants in the tank and about 15 fish. I used BioSpira to initially cycle the tank and maintain the cycle with StressZyme. After the water change I noticed a very small worm like thing in the water...it reminded me of something you would see in a microscope in high school biology. It was about 1/4- 3/8 of an inch in length and twitching, so I know it was living. The fish eat flakes with occasional frozen shrimp and bloodworms or freeze dried daphnia and bloodworms. Should I be worried or is this okay? Treat or watch fish behavior carefully? I will answer any questions to assist with a diagnosis!

andy65

Did it look like this?



I found these in my tank and the guy at my LFS said that they where bristleworms,but I do not think they are, as all I can find about them is that they are SW not FW and they are BIG 2-3".

john&jen

Very similar, not as hyper and free floating... not attached to any fish. Are these parasites or homesteaders in the tank?

Barbrella

Sounds like planaria. These are harmless worms, and are usually seen in a tank with too much leftover food.

Continue vacuuming the gravel and don't overfeed.

andy65

I think what you are seeing are a worm that grow by over feeding. "white worms in freshwater fish tank"

IF they are the P ones, they are not parasites just a sign of over feed. They need lots of food to breed.

I do not mean to hijack you post,But does any one know the ID of worm in my video? I posted about it RIGHT before the forum crash, so it did not survive.

john&jen

Thank you. After further research, I'm leaning toward planaria. I did read salting the tank eliminates them, but I keep my tank salted @ 1 TBS per 5 gal. I use API salt and that is their recommended dose.

0morrokh

They're not a problem, so you don't need to worry about getting rid of them unless you really want to. The fish will probably eat them.

As a side note, what fish do you have? Most fw fish don't like salt and none of them need it to be healthy. In fact it can be stressful to a lot of them.

COBettaCouple

We'll see planaria pop up from time to time and just suck them out with a turkey baster. That and cutting back a little on the food should help eliminate them. How often and how much do you do water changes and tank cleaning?

I would agree on the salt - it's not really needed for freshwater fish and harmful to scaleless ones. It can build up too, slowly raising the salinity of the tank and causing slime coat damage on a continuous basis.

john&jen

Some livebearers, tetras, a rainbow shark, an upside down cat, and a pictus. Usually 20 gallons changed a week as nitrate levels dictate. We got into this in October and the people at Petsmart were pro salt, but I am most certainly open to suggestions. I comprehend the stress issue, but I thought it keeps disease in check. Everyone swims happily. If you need a better breakdown on the fishcount I could...

On a sidenote, there is a lyretail creamsickle molly who appears to be missing all the scales from her head to her dorsal fin. Her condition has improved significantly over the past week, but she isn't the most attractive fish in the tank right now. Is the salt helping or hindering her? Pima, Mela fix for her? Thoughts?

Barbrella

Most pet store employees know little to nothing about the fish they sell. Their advice ranges from useless to downright dangerous/lethal.

Catfish, having no scales, are particularly intolerant of salt. As said, your other species all live in freshwater in nature and don't need salt. The stress and diurectic properties of all that salt could actually bring on disease.

1 tablespoon per 5 gallons is a HUGE amount of salt. Mollies are fine with that, but the others are not. I would stop using it and do water changes to get rid of what's in there.

COBettaCouple

I believe the salt is having a negative effect with her regrowing scales. If you can get a liquid vitamin such as Vita-Chem and a product like Stress Coat, or preferrably Fish Protector (petmountain.com).. they would aid her in regrowing the lost scales.

Pimafix and Melafix wouldn't be something to add for lost scales unless you suspected an ongoing disease in her.