Help, tiny worms!

Worms sound like flat worms. As long as they don't "grow up" to be planaria, you are fine. (aka they stay small)


The small things hopping around could be copepods, or something else.

What is that bug in my Aquarium? .:. Various small creatures that can inhabit a Freshwater Invertebrate Aquarium


As long as you have no planaria or hydra (or seed shrimp?), you don't *need* to do anything other than maybe feeding less food and upping the water changes. If you want, you can add guppy fry for a short while... they'll eat tiny things, including potentially baby shrimp. Once the aquarium appears pretty clean, remove them. It is possible though for the fish to miss eating all the extra critters though....


Here is a picture of a flatworm
http://i.imgur.com/UKePbu3.jpg


A couple different pictures of planaria (they can range in color and shape - somewhat)
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/members/57106-albums10668-picture45329.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_puTVILFyI...Aik/SV1NtwxJT1Q/s320/planaria-composite-2.jpg

laeanee said:

If it was something in my tap water I wouldn't they have shown up in the 40 gallon tank that I've had for 4+yrs?

Click to expand...

If it glides like a snail, @Zoidburg is right that it is most likely a flatworm (most are not bad). Hard to say if you have copepods or something else since you say it kind of jumps around while most copepods I have kind of putter around like a Jetson's car.

In your 40 gallon, unless you only use RO water, you almost certainly have detritus worms. Fish eat them quite readily, and they usually stay buried in your substrate unless there is a lack of food. They are also don't tend to leave substrate until lights are off or at their lowest.

To be completely honest, all of these are very beneficial for your aquarium. When I started out, I was mad the first time I got snails from plants. Then I saw them decimate hair algae among other things, and they grew on me a bit. Now I have copepods (seed shrimp), 3 types of snails, limpets, tiny flatworms, and tons of detritus worms. I haven't vaccuumed​ my sand in over a year, and every time I pull plants, there is hardly anything that floats into the water column as a result.

If you really have to kill it all, get No Planaria or a Planaria Zero. These will kill snails and worms but will not harm fish or shrimp. Just make sure to watch for ammonia spikes due to all the dead snails/worms. You'll also have to stir up the substrate during dosing time to get them all. Just know that the detritus worms whose eggs come in through water will most likely be back

I was able to get some REALLY zoomed in pictures of what's in my tank. I just want to make sure it's not planaria or anything else that could be harmful. What do you guys think?



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