Planaria bloom/outbreak. Any advice/suggestions/help?

[Bigpig]

Hiya,
I have got an outbreak/bloom of what seems to be Planaria, I first noticed a snow storm of hundreds of very tiny, thread like worms, with some larger, (about 4 to 5 mm) worms on the glass.
The odd thing is, this is a brand new tank!
It has new rinsed playpit sand as substrate, and well soaked bogwood. I have used an external filter off another tank. Perhaps this is the source?
The tank that this filter came off does not have any of these worms. (Maybe they get eaten).
I have dosed the tank twice with Flubenol 15, which has cut down these worms a lot, but there seem to be a small number of them left.
After a good search on PF and PC, I have now raised the temp to over 30 degrees.
There are no fish in this tank yet, therefore no food going in.
Will I be able to just starve the worms out?
I have also heard that some fish will eat the worms. I have some White Clouds that could go in there, but not sure if they will do the job.
Have any of you had this problem?
Any suggestions of what further actions, of suitable fish, would be a great help.

__________________

[Richard B]

Planaria must have come from an aquatic environment, so an existing filter may be the source. As the filter would suck up uneaten food the planaria may have found this a good residence & gone into the tank in negligible numbers?

Another question might be, what water was used to soak the bogwood - where did it come from?

Hopefully this answers the issue of the source of the planaria.

I don't think white clouds would eat them - you'd need something which is a substrate feeder - some cats or loaches, but i'm unsure as to which ones - i'll try a little research

[Richard B]

Have you seen this? http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/man ... Worms.html

Which seems very good and contains the following
"Natural predators may help. Apple Snails, Hong Kong Plecs. (coldwater), Whiptail Catfish, and any Limnivorous Catfish (Mud-eaters, e.g. Twig Catfish and Bubble-nesting Catfish, who are constantly searching throughout the tank for vegetable matter, detritus, micro-organisms and tiny crustaceans), are among the species that will (usually if left unfed for a few days) eat away at Planaria on a long term basis. In the short term Betta and Pelvicachromis (Kribs.) species will eat small amounts of Planaria. "

[Bigpig]

Hiya Richard,
From that article, and my own observations, I think the Planaria must have been lving in the filter, and any that ventured into the old tank were eaten by the fish. Now I am researching what fish do the best job of keeping the plarania at bay.
I was planning this new tank as a breeding tank for P.Maccus, so dont want to have the Planaria eating any eggs!

[apistomaster]

You may not have Planaria but one of the common detritus feeding aquatic Oligochate worms that are very frequent residents in filter media or in sponge filters. Once in awhile conditions will arise that drives them out of their normal residence. One example with sponge filters is if the water circulation is stopped for a few hours. Thread-like free swimming worms isn't a very good description of any Planaria which tend to crawl slowly on substrates including the glass and if magnified, they resemble small squashed slugs.

In either case, the best means of controlling/eliminating them from sight is improving the conditions. Clean the substrate free of excess food particles and detritus. Also revisit your feeding regime as to portion size and frequency to be sure all food is eaten within minutes. Planarians are especially common in aquariums with a substrate that contain fish which are regularly fed a beef heart blend like a Discus tank. Flubenol isn't very useful as a control agent but improved house cleaning and more careful feeding work best and the quickest. The amount of Flubenol necessary to kill Planarians is dangerously high and it is a relatively safe medication, very effective on many parasitic worms.

[Richard B]

It is a good point from Larry that we should identify the creatures first. Is there any chance of a close up photo? Obviously you'll need a camera with a close up zoom...

[Bigpig]

Hiya,
I seem to have these creatures under control now, (fingers crossed).
They were not really free swimming, more being blown about by the filter outlet.
I have cleaned the filter out, but when I took it apart, it was really quite clean anyway.
No sign of any worms living in there.
I have put some fish in there now, so hopefully any Planaria still in there will be eaten.
Thanks to everyone who helped with this.

[apistomaster]

Planaria almost always go away as long as you do regular routine cleaning and tighten up on the food supply. They are just not pleasant to have but fortunately these worms do not attack infect fish.
Same is true of the Oligochate worms(fresh water bristleworms). They are related but don't share the dangers of the reef tank species.

Richard,
Just Google fresh water Planarians and Oligochates and you will find photos and what role they play in fresh water systems, both in natural bodies of water and aquariums. Sooner or later most of use meet up with one or both of them in an aquarium. They don't receive much attention since these particular species aren't parasites but actually part of a well established aquarium ecology. We usually see them when the equilibrium is disturbed for some reason and tend to go away about the way they came.
They are common subjects for observation when exploring pond water under a low powered microscope.

[Richard B]

Planaria almost always go away as long as you do regular routine cleaning and tighten up on the food supply. They are just not pleasant to have but fortunately these worms do not attack infect fish.
Same is true of the Oligochate worms(fresh water bristleworms). They are related but don't share the dangers of the reef tank species.

Richard,
Just Google fresh water Planarians and Oligochates and you will find photos and what role they play in fresh water systems, both in natural bodies of water and aquariums. Sooner or later most of use meet up with one or both of them in an aquarium. They don't receive much attention since these particular species aren't parasites but actually part of a well established aquarium ecology. We usually see them when the equilibrium is disturbed for some reason and tend to go away about the way they came.
They are common subjects for observation when exploring pond water under a low powered microscope.

I'm familiar with Planaria & uk marine polychaetes but not freshwater oligochate ones - it seems Bigpig's problem is now sorted.

There is a uk company making an aquarium food from cultured polychaetes http://www.dragonfeeds.com/view/global/page/70291
...it's actually quite good!