[Hardstuff]

O.K. my 10 gallon planted tank looks great. Plants are doing well & shrimps look good. Zero algae crystal clear water. Yesterday I decided to look through the side of the glass, its a 10 gallon heavily planted 85% , because I love the way the tank looks from the side. So while being amazed at the view I noticed a puff of white stuff coming out of filter #2. I first thought it was o2 then to my horror realized that 500 or more white worms pretty sure Planaria was coming out of the outflow of filter#2. All the worms were white in color & curled. No detectable movement could be noticed. The last time I had planaria which I am still not sure 100% it is Planaria the worms in question would settle down on the rocks & substrate an straighten out & move. ALL THESE WORMS JUST SETTLED INTO THE SUBSTRATE & seemed to vanish. There is no movement on glass,substrate,rocks, or plants Most of all I do not see any at the moment in the water column. I used methodonzinole about 3 weeks ago but have since done more than a 50% water change + I cleaned the maine canister , canister #1 which is a fluval 106, the second canister is a zoo med 501 which is more simple in design. I just cleaned the zoomed 3 weeks ago as well. Any ideas, do you think that they are all dead or are they alive?????? puzzled at the moment.

 

[GeToChKn]

Sounds like detrius worms and not planaria. Planaria, the deadly kind to shrimp anyways, are usually more pink, fatter than long and skinny and have a tell-tale triangle shaped head. They also like the glass and surfaces more than the substrate. Detrius worms love sponges, and substrate.

 

[Hardstuff]

what is strange is that I seeded a tank for quarantine from the 10 planted tank & I just noticed for sure planarians on the glass???? Smaller & thiner than the 10 planted tanks worms. They were lighter & grayish in color & moving. But the tank was seeded from the planted tank. I never noticed them before even in the planted tank. If they are detritus worms how do I get rid of them, & are they harmful to the tank?? Why did they not move??? They look fatter than the planarians. You probably called it right, but what can I do to get rid of them?? More water changes from substrate Change out sponges???

 

[Hardstuff]

48 hour update on white worm discharge. I cleaned said filter which is the smaller canister. I removed the sponge portion that leads directly out the out flow. There are no more sponges in the filter. I did not see any worms in the filter but it looked dirty. Last cleaning only 3 weeks ago. I replaced the sponge with filter wool & stuffed it around out flow pipe to prevent blowout organics which is part of the zoo med outflow. This filter is impossible to clean all parts but makes a good secondary canister if needed for small tanks. Detrius worms seem to like sponges but may also like the wool. We shall see. The tank is doing great with no sign of any worm infestation at the moment. Makes me think the worms that came out of the filter were all dead because the tank was treated with flagil 3 weeks ago.