High guys , just wondering how many people find undescribable worms in their tanks?
About 12 months ago I found this monster of a worm in the black 3ftr , later some local
gurus I.D. it was a fresh water bristol worm( also being told by other parties that bristols
only occur in marine environments) any way fixed that issue with YO-YO loaches as
they like to dig deep in the substrate and go for the taste of worms.
This is the nasty little fellow I trapped

looked like a centerpide with big biting mouth parts and the fine filaments along the body
moved along like legs.
Now I've stared to play around with crystal red shrimp , had them about a month and have a
batch of babies to boot. That's the good news .
Now the Bad - I went to show the bubs off last night and found what looked like a friggin leach
in the little 20ltr and when I tried to pull the sod out with tweezers all these little wriggly baby
just fell off of it.
Sure as hell looked like a leach, moved like one, so it has to be parasitic. Apart from salting the
water , any one got any good bug medicine ideas- or similar events happen to them, this way we'll
all be the wiser.
Cheers J

Hi J

To be honest I have never come across worms like that in any of my tanks, but they sure look mean. Please keep us informed on what you do to erradicate them etc.

Most parasites like that come in with new plants.

Angi

wow nasty little bugger isnt he,,

Ive currently got planeria in my tank they are small white worms and are very hard to
get rid of.....
Caused by not enough cleaning and gravel vacking.....
They feed of plec crap and left over food...
My advice would be to do a large water change say maybe 40% whilst cleaning the gravel then leave it a few days and do the same again..
Minimise your feeding whilst doing this process and see how that goes...

[quote="Curby"]wow nasty little bugger isnt he,,

Ive currently got planeria in my tank they are small white worms and are very hard to
get rid of.....
Caused by not enough cleaning and gravel vacking.....
They feed of plec crap and left over food...
My advice would be to do a large water change say maybe 40% whilst cleaning the gravel then leave it a few days and do the same again..

You can feed every other day with any tropical fish, except fry of course lol, but the planaria are easier to catch when cold water goes in. That seems to get them on the move, so what I did was do a partial change, top up with cold then syphon more water out whilst chasing the boogers lol. With the bristlies, we only feed 3 or 4 at most times a week.

Thanx for the input guys but I know all about planaria , most of my tanks have it and the
dither fish keep the numbers under control. It's weird oddities I want to know about .
The first worm "bristol worm" measured about 6 inches at full stretch where as planaria are
only a few mm long, but then to find this leach thing which has to be parasitic is a little concerning.
The person I got them off of doesn't have the same problem , so it has to be either the fox tail fern
that I put in the tank or the snails that came with the fern , regardless I'm not happy Jan.
Cheers J

Ha Ha , your beardie would probably love munching it down, but the bristol issue is sorted
care of Mr YO-YO loache, apparently they just love dig really deep , so in 3cm of gravel
they can get right in there. Now to find a fish that doesn't enjoy the taste of shrimp and goes
for other pests.
J

All right , managed to borrow a mates camera - so this is what the little turd
looks like

just a little bit closer and you can notice it is still moving even after a few days in
a glass jar with no airation


The little S.O.B measures @10-12mm when chubby and when the long skinny end is stretched
out closer to 20-25mm, so it\'s not planaria.
J

Ewwwwww

I have to say that I am sooooo glad that we don't have a problem like that, although not comforting to you I know LOL

I guess it shows that not only fish should be quarantined when buying as you never know what the plants have waiting to hatch on them

EEWWW , ya got that right
death to all tank undesirables
So what do you think it is now.
J

I.D confirmed as a type of leech, even though both parties tell me
they usually are harmless, I'm going down the road of a salt bath for the little boogers
as to not get an infestation in other of my tanks.
J