What's This??? Worried

I came home tonight and was doing a 20% water change and realized I had these little worm like things in the water.

Sorry I know the pic is not clear as they are so tiny. Its thinner than hair and are about 0.5cm-1cm in length. Barely noticed till I saw them wriggling.

I got a standard 4 foot, rather heavily planted with lots of drift wood. In the tank I got 5 L002's all about 2 years old with tons of cherry shrimps.

I feed them zuchinni and do a 5-10% water change everyday with rain water. The tank gets a dose of direct sunlight from where it is.

I have never seen these little wormy like things before. In about a 20% water change I sucked out maybe 10 of them? Hard to see as its dark.

What should I do. Are they going to affect my tank and fish etc? PLease advice thanks

pretty sure they are harmless. my fish eat them. they come from over feeding or sometimes they are in the filter and come out after you have switched filter off to clean and switch back on again.
most dither fish eat them. what fish have you got in the tank. how much food do they get, how often?

I've got 5 L002's and a lot of cheery shrimps, nothing else. I feed them zuchinni, about a quarter of a small one nightly, but morning its been completely consumed leaving the skin. thing is because my work hours are quite irregular, the zuchinni might be in the tank for more than 12 hours. do you think they might come from the zuchinni? Or should I get some tetras to eat those little wormy things?

Such a relief to hear they might be harmless

Hello,

I think you have planaria worms.
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarian"]Planarian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] and
http://search.babylon.com/imageres.php?iu=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--Ko40Jy-5lE/TWMvyZ-zQfI/AAAAAAAAAFo/FCAaH2NuO9Q/s1600/Planaria%2B2.jpg&ir=http://henira.blogspot.com/2011/02/si-pipih-indikator-air-bersih.html&ig=http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSD3vpRtgAQWR9Kg-dxWRO13c1LY9FoIvC3LofohqPc-dAi1__O4klc8s8&h=600&w=800&q=planaria&babsrc=browsersearch

sometimes caused by overfeeding or not clean tanks.
Feed less, clean gravel ( you would be surprised how much waste shrimp also make) and monitor. They are harmless, however if in larger numbers they get difficult to get rid of because when they die, they pollute the water. cheers jk :thumbup:

I would get a small group of tetra or endlers or similar small dither fish. they will eat the worms. they will also encourage the plecs to come out of hiding more. no its not the zuchinni thats the problem, but perhaps only put that in every other day. the L002 will need a few other types of food to vary their diet and keep them healthy, they also produce a lot of waste which is part of the problem. try a few peas with skin off, and perhaps occasional flake food or granules. you will need some food for the dither fish anyway.
how big is the tank and what size filter do you have?

The tank is a standard 4 foot. Because of where's its situated there's quite alot of sun light and bright green algae is growing out of control as well.

This afternoon I didn't see any of those wormy things.

I'm running a Eheim Pro Classic box filter, a double tube Eheim powerhead and 2 decent sized bio filters.

What else can I feed the L002's? I tried pallet food for plecos but they just completely ignore it. As for peas, tried that but they don't really eat it, they try to chase it but can never catch it :dk:

Just ignore them, maybe do a more comprehensive water change for a while and perhaps feed a little less.

reduce your feeding amount , or if you want you can treat them with medication is something called No planaria...which is harmless to shrimps too

Hi,

if i may say, using meds for killing planaria, snials or algae, does not kill the root of the problem in the first place. You just add uneccesary meds tothe system without working out the solution and cause. Feed less and vacum left over food and water change and they will go. Just simple but takes a few days of work. cheers jk :thumbup:

If you see them wiggling around in the water they're nematodes. They're harmless and best way to get rid of them is by fallowing what's been suggested by the others WC's and less food.

If you see them on the glass and they look flat like and move around on the glass like they're floating it's planaria. Planaria is just a common name for a crap load of flat worms 99% are usually harmless. I'm talking what we call planaria though not flat worms majority are harmful.
Best way to get rid of them is the same as the above. These guys are also sensitive to sudden temp changes like a big drop. I think they're light sensitive as well.

IMO all the products sold just for the removal of them is a huge waste of money. It's just another way for people to profit off the fears of hobbyists who don't want to risk having these guys scoop away their baby shrimp or even swallow a whole adult shrimp lol. They will eat eggs so they say.

There is proof that planaria(s) of some types eat hydra who are proven baby shrimp killer.

Not sure if this helps but last week I seen a full size shrimp cherry fighting one of these things I did my best to get phone out to film but in the rush by the time I looked back up shrimp was alright but that white worm was gone I still don't know who was trying to eat who? But yes the shrimp was on top for a solid 30secs as the worm was wiggling about?

Anyways I found that my problem is feeding fresh veg and being lazy to take out the excess I'm sure you are doing the same wrong like me as for others who don't feed fresh veg it's youust have live plants that have parts rotting !

Just my oppinon nothing I can prove !!! Lol

Thanks alot for the feedback guys. The little wormy things just vanished. Can't find anymore in the tank. Its like one day they're there the next day they're not