funny white worm things

[silvershark]

in my planted but fishless tank i have noticed some tiny worm like things crawling on the glass. there are a few mt snails in there but that is it, so what are these creatures and where do they come from?!

also i could do with knowing if they are harmful to fish/plants or not!!

thanks

 

[WILDER]

Can be due to over feeding and not enough maintance on the tank, i would do a gravel vac, and they are not harmful to the fish.
http/www.badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article1.html

 

[BigC]

Planaria worms due to over feeding and bad tank maintenance as said above.

 

[Sky042]

Planaria worms due to over feeding and bad tank maintenance as said above.

I got them in a tank right after it was filled oddly enough.
Before I even started the fishless cycle.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

its not exactly "over-feeding and poor maintenance" but really just excess nutrients that lead to planaria showing up. a fishless planted tank with snails is a great candidate for planaria; you probably do little to no maintenance since there's no fish and the snails just chow down on dead/dying plant matter. the build-up of snail waste leads to more nutrients than your beneficial bacteria and plants can handle--thus planaria appear!

planaria are a bit unsightly, but harmless (its the conditions leading to their propagation that are undesirable). small fish like eating them so if you have fry, you can use the planted tank for a grow-out (provided you can get the water parameters ok first).