[JadeCrystal]

So - I am back and I had success recently with my shrimp! My three actually turned out to be 2 females and 1 male. Earlier last week I noticed two of them were carrying eggs and just today after placing a new almond leaf, alder cone, rock, driftwood, and 2 new plants yesterday - the sides of my tank (where I have some algae growing) are now hosting small white worm-like things. Are they larvae or worms? If they are larvae - should I leave them be? If they are worms - what are some good fish species to place in a small tank with some shrimp that won't eat the shrimp but keep worms in check?

Thanks all!

 

[Zoidburg]

Anything that will eat the worms will also eat baby shrimplets.

Worms could be rhabdocoela flatworms, detritus worms or?

 

[a modest aquarist]

Like previous comment I suspect detritus worms or other non-harmful fauna, but without an image it's hard say. If you can post a picture, I think that would really help.

 

[JadeCrystal]

They are detritus worm - today I'll be grabbing a gravel vacuum from the pet store and doing a 30 or 50 percent water change. Too many nutrients in the tank at the moment.

 

[Plinkploop]

Detritus worms, luckily, aren't going to hurt anything. Just be careful with large water changes on shrimp tanks. I've been researching shrimp keeping and hear a lot about troubles with changing water too quickly. I'm still on the fence about jumping into it so I'm not speaking from personal experience at all.

 

[JadeCrystal]

Haha - fair enough. Yea - I always am careful when I do water changes, I always check my water ph and nitrite, ammonia, and nitrate levels before adding new water but luckily it is an easy problem to fix.

Okay so for everyone who has had worm issues - I plan on doing 25% water changes every week now and doing a blackout on my lighting system (it runs on 8 hour to 12 hours depending on work schedules). If this doesn't help with my worm issue I was thinking of getting a white clouded minnow. Is this a good idea? Or what other fish could handle living with shrimp and not eat my adults or the babies?

 

[Plinkploop]

Any fish that will eat the worms will eat baby shrimp, it's the nature of the beast. Worms won't really react to the light that much. I have never really had a problem with detritus worms... Not that I haven't had them, just that I've never been bothered with having them. They tend to clean up mulm and get eaten (I haven't kept shrimp and just about all carnivorous fish eat them) or die off. I don't know how they interact with shrimp, though.

 

[JadeCrystal]

From what I have heard - the minnow or another type of fish will eat the worms and not likely to eat the adult shrimp. Considering I have a small tank at 7.5 gallons - I was leaning towards getting a fish to help me keep baby shrimp in check but also allow my adults to thrive? So it would possibly help my tank remain a healthy system and not overrun with baby shrimp XD. Two of my shrimp have eggs currently and since they are detritus worms - I am not hugely worried about them at the moment. Considering they don't harm my shrimp.