# Can anyone identify these worms?



## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

Ive got worms! My 5 gallon shrimp tank has ADA soil, and no fish. It is crawling with white worms. What are they? Are they harmful? If I add some fish, will they eat the worms?

The last few seconds of video 2 (in the next post) shows the worms swimming:


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

Video 2:


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## sunshine_1965 (Aug 16, 2011)

Planaria Worms - Tiny Wiggly White Worms in Aquarium. This is just my guess.


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

those dont look like panaria to me, those are way bigger, but i would suspect that fish would eat them, if there are no fish, and have never been fish then i hav no idea where they came from, maybe the ada comes with them but i have no clue , but that doesnt look like planaria to me


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## davej (Apr 28, 2010)

Planarian are flat and glide around on the gravel and glass.

The little guy swimming in an S shaped pattern is a nematode.

Here is a bit on them from planet inverts. 
"Nematodes are small, thin, white/transparent free-living roundworms and the "swim" moving themselves in a wave like pattern (well, forming an S shape). If disturbed, they will swim around wriggling briskly. You can find them from the substrate and they are the ones that might appear from the filter when you turn it on. These ones are harmless, but as with any other "pest", if there's too many of them, you are either overfeeding or just not keeping the tank clean enough of debris, decaying plant matter."

http://www.planetinverts.com/what_is_that_bug_in_my_aquarium.html


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

and there ya go ... was wrong, but again not my area of expertise , i thought the super tiny ones were planaria, ... learn something everyday


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

nematoids. yummy fish food... there are many little creatures that show up in shrimp tanks that you don't see in fish tanks because they get eaten before they get established.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

I saw these in a tank that I was babysitting, once. The tank was planted but had no fish. I added a couple of killifish and the little worms disappeared. I think the fish missed them.


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

Morainy said:


> I saw these in a tank that I was babysitting, once. The tank was planted but had no fish. I added a couple of killifish and the little worms disappeared. I think the fish missed them.


 I am putting a few fish in tonight. Hopefully that will do the trick.


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## tabbee (Jun 2, 2012)

Ursus sapien said:


> nematoids. yummy fish food... there are many little creatures that show up in shrimp tanks that you don't see in fish tanks because they get eaten before they get established.


I was given some bacteria awhile ago, to help cycle my betta tank, that came from someones fish/shrimp tank. I recently noticed the betta hunting around the gravel bottom at night and thought he was becoming neurotic or something. I vacuumed the gravel lightly and had all this white crap floating around and was baffled as to what it was and where it was coming from. Shortly after I found on the glass a few worms (?) so tiny, like white specks of dust. Vacuuming the gravel much more deeply now I can see lots of this white stuff, going into the siphon.

He gets fed 3-4 pellets twice daily and I have no live plants so I'm not too sure what these things are living on.. what they are and how to get rid of them, as much as he seems to enjoy them. :/


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## davefrombc (Apr 21, 2010)

The white worms are " detritus worms " They are likely a species of nematode , but could be one of any number of different worms .. They are harmless to fish or shrimp, and actually would be food for any fish that roots them out . They feed on uneaten fish/shrimp food and fish wastes in the substrate.
To tell the difference between planaria and the various worms; worms are round and wiggle like an earthworm; planaria are flatter and wider, glide across the surface of the sand or glass, and have a distinctive triangular head and two eye spots you can see under magnification.

White worms , microworms and vinegar eels are all types of nematodes we culture for fish food , similar the other white worms that seems to spontaneously appear in a tank that has excess food and wastes in the substrate.


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## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

these worms dont come out of thin air - or water for that matter. I have seen tiny TINY *TINY* worms that resemble mosquito larvae a few mm across, white in colour appear wriggling around in new tanks of mine. They have to come from somewhere, and I am assuming since I didnt put them in there that they live in the digestive tracts of the fish we buy. I cannot come up with another logical explanation as to their origins.


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

ThePhoenix said:


> these worms dont come out of thin air - or water for that matter. I have seen tiny TINY *TINY* worms that resemble mosquito larvae a few mm across, white in colour appear wriggling around in new tanks of mine. They have to come from somewhere, and I am assuming since I didnt put them in there that they live in the digestive tracts of the fish we buy. I cannot come up with another logical explanation as to their origins.


 Their eggs are microscopic, so could be on anything you put into the tank. (Plants, soil, food, etc.) The most likely source for mine is the ADA soil.


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