Parasite found - Please Help!

sli1 · Post by **sli1** » 08 Sep 2006, 07:50

Hi all,

Not sure what section of the forum was best to post this so im sorry if this is in the wrong place.

I just finished cleaning my aquarium and found some kind of parasite on the inside glass. There was a few and all heading for the gravel. A few disapeared from the glass and i think i saw them floating around with the current. It did look like its the parasite floating but cannot confirm as right after a semi-large clean there was a few floaties around.

What i am after is if anyone can please identify this parasite for me and tell me the best way to get rid of it.

Pic is here and unchanged: click me
It is about 1.6Mb in size

I have a 120Ltr Tank
So far i used Wardley's Para-Ex aquarium tablets.
Meant to treat Anchorworms, fish lice & gill flukes.

Have i used the right stuff?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated...

Mike_Noren · Post by **Mike_Noren** » 08 Sep 2006, 09:21

It's hard to tell, but I'd say that's a small flatworm. I can't see enough detail to identify it, but the body shape suggests it's a proseriate.

Anyway, it's not a parasite. There are no parasites which spend a lot of time on the glass and gravel and then attack the fish - even fish leeches spend most of their time on the fish.
That's a small scavenger, and it'll be feeding on leftover fish food. It's come in to your aquarium either with live food or with plants.

Having small worms and crustaceans is normal, all aquaria which have been up and running for a while, or which have plants, do. It's a bit like having insects in the garden: they're always there and if you look close you'll see them.

Anyway, as for flatworms the best ways to kill them is through the use of ich medication and/or medication against gill flukes - but truth be told there's hardly ever any reason to kill the small bugs which pop up in aquaria.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 08 Sep 2006, 16:13

small Nematodes and even flatworms like Planaria and the worm in your pic are truly harmless.

if anything, it says your tank is well established and running smoothly!

the slightly bigger ones can be a bother in special breeding tanks because some species might snack on tiny eggs or fishfry.
however, most are indeed harmless scavengers and better: really liked by lots of fish as a foodsource!

small catfishes (Corydoras for example), Anabantoids and Livebearers are fish that like and eat small worms. these little white worms can also occur on the wet side of the glass above the waterline and on glasspanes covering the tank near the bubbles from the airstone or the filteroutlet.
they graze on algae or prey on microscopic critters that grow on the glass or in the algae-mat near airstones and the like.

usually the sign your tank is up and running for quite some time.

no worries!

ps; eradicating them with a strong dose of chemical stuff is a BAD IDEA! chemicals that are used to kill off "higher organisms" like worms and the like (like the ones used for gillflukes and Lernea) are the strongest, most toxic meds we use in our hobby....they really damage the biological workings of your filter, the benificial bacteria in both filter and tank and in general worsen the water a LOT>
also: the dead and decaying worms DO poison the water in your tank!
stuff like that should be used only as a last resort when the worst of the worst really are attacking your fish (Lernea for example is a real bad mofo parasite), and usually the tank and the fish need a long time to recuperate from such a treatment.
don't go 'overly allergic" on any small critter in the tank or mideaval in a toxic way on unknown tiny creepy crawly's.

like Mike says: if it was a baddie, it would be on your fish, not on the glass gliding away to nowhere.

sli1 · Post by **sli1** » 08 Sep 2006, 17:40

Thanks heaps guys for the great feed back and clarification.
Looking at it now i hope i didnt harm my system with the meds... Fingers crossed...

Good to know i have a well established tank though

Thanks again for the info, much appreciated!

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 08 Sep 2006, 20:25

These out breaks of planaria are almost always the result of chronic overfeeding or a lot of food particles lodging in coarse gravel. As has already been said they are ubiquitous but populations bloom when there is an abundance of food.

sli1 · Post by **sli1** » 08 Sep 2006, 21:08

WOW i though i wasnt feeding that much as i feed my fish every 3 days. I feed them with 1 frozen block of discus mix as 2 halves.

I assume this must be uneaten food as you say...

Should i feed even less often or just use half a block?

sli1 · Post by **sli1** » 08 Sep 2006, 22:27

I must add i did notice something interesting with these worms when i just got home from my night shift.

As i turned on the light in my aquarium i noticed a rather larger number of these worms on the wes side of the walls(about 10 or a little more).

Since the light came on they all started to head back down to the gravel. There are also a few floating around in the current. They range from 2mm in length to about 5mm.

Is this a characteristic of a particular type of worm?

The one in the pic was about 3mm in length when streched out.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 08 Sep 2006, 22:28

Planaria outbreaks are very common when using beefheart based foods. THey have a definite liking for meat which is one of the few objections I have for beefheart. Despite this I find it to be a very good food and incorporate it into the diets of my baby and adult discus because it seems to help them become "beefy" if you pardon my pun.
I don't think it is a case of overfeeding as it is some of the fine particle are falling into the interstices of the gravel particles. It only takes a little. I tend to use beefheart blends in bare bottom tanks rather than in my display tanks.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 08 Sep 2006, 22:39

Yes it's normal for them to avoid the light.

sli1 · Post by **sli1** » 08 Sep 2006, 23:01

Fantastic information!

Thanks so much again for answering my questions, the knowledge here is excellent

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 09 Sep 2006, 00:01

You should try Google for "planarians". You will be astounded at how much is known about them. They are a favorite laboratory animal. They have trained them to run a ""planarian" maze, then cut them up and fed them to untrained mazes and the "memory" is transferred to the untrained worms. That is just one of the amazing things they've donee with these flat worms. There are even giants that live on coral reefs getting a foot or so long only they are brightly colored.
The next pest you are likely to encounter if you feed a lot of newly hatched brineshrimp will be Hydra. They sneak in on plants and have population explosions when there is enough plankton available. They are miniature fresh water anemones.
There is always something new to discover within the self-contained world of an aquarium.

sli1 · Post by **sli1** » 09 Sep 2006, 20:41

Some great reading about these "planarians" in google

Thanks for the keyword

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 09 Sep 2006, 21:03

Pretty weird creatures are'nt they?

sli1 · Post by **sli1** » 11 Sep 2006, 02:08

Interestingly weird, yes...