That's not dog hair!

[Fishyk80]

Hi everyone! I am curious about something I see in my tanks. They look like individual small hairs floating in the water column. Until now, I've pretty much assumed that I'd accidentally gotten some dog hair in the tank- my dog is white and has mostly straightish hair and that's what it looks like in the tank- Until I took a closer look and noticed they wriggle around while being pulled along with the rest of the water!

I looked at the pest id thread and im pretty sure they are detritus worms. But I had a planaria problem a few months ago so I'm a little paranoid it's planaria again. I read that planaria commonly slide on the glass, but CAN they free swim in the water column?

If these are detritus worms, how many is too many? I didn't see any until I disturbed the substrate to clean.

Thanks!

 

[richiep]

Pictures please will help id this for you
If thry only came when you disturbed the substrate the chances are Detritus

 

[Fishyk80]

Thanks for the info. I just posted two pics in my original question.

 

[richiep]

They are Detritus and not planaria, if there's fish in there they will eat them but you'll find most of them go back in the substrate, any cleaning will disturb them or suck them out, nothing to worry about these are more common in shrimp tsnks

 

[Kribensis27]

Definitely not planaria. Detritus worms for sure. The fact that you mostly see them after stirring up gunk is another big indicator of them. I just let them go wild in my tanks. Fish love to hunt them, and they help break down extra gunk.

My tanks are all fairly healthy with large populations of various "bugs", so I don't know what "too many" would be. My fish keep the population under control, so they never get out of hand. Cut down on feeding a bit to get rid of them, if you want to.

 

[Fishyk80]

Thanks so much! When I was taking the pictures I noticed my betta looked like he ate one! I have cut down on feeding since the planaria outbreak, and I often feel slightly guilty that I'm only giving him food every other day... But now that I know he likes the worms I won't feel so bad, lol!