Help, Fish/snail Tank Is Infested With Leaches/baby Worms

[Bekahsa]

I have never seen this before, so this is my first time dealing with this.
 
I knew my gravel was in bad condition because I hadn't vacuum cleaned yet, as I was having problems with water clarity and I didn't want to vacuum up my Cory Julii baby fish, so I waited.  My tank started getting this white slimy stuff on the glass, plants, and even on my 2 baby snails.  So I cleaned it and moved on.  The next 2 days it started getting like that again, and I notice one of my baby snails had some white slimy thing covering it so I took it out of the water, and I said this can't be good.  
 
So I decided to take all of my snails out of the tank into a hospital tank for the mean time.  I than started to remove my Cory Julii's cause I didn't wanted them getting sick over this stuff, whatever it was.  I did found one Cory dead though, not sure why as there was nothing was wrong with it, no marks no sign of sickness or thinning, nothing.  Anyways, I remove all Cory Julii's, this took me awhile because I have quite a few of them.  Anyways, I put them into my tank where I have my 8 Neon Tetras and my 5 guppies.
 
After all this, I turned off the light and turn the filter off.  Than as I looked into the tank to make sure I didn't miss any Julii's, all I could see on the glass was these red balls of worms, Wow!  Looks like out of a Horror Movie.  Oh before all this, I had taken out 5 of my moss balls and the tiny one was red and coming apart in my hands, I freaked out a bit, and said what the heck is this?  Oh well, I put it in the tank where my snails was and immediately I saw these worms just guessing out of the little small moss ball, I panic at that moment and removed all my snails as fast as I could and empty out that tank, then added more of the main aquarium tank, mind you the worms hadn't come out yet, so the main tank water was still clear and good for the snails.  So than that is when I had decided to take my Cory's out of the main tank and into the other tank with my Guppie's and Tetra's are.  
 
I am freaking out and dreading the re-cleaning of this 45 gallon tank, so I'm asking anyone's advise as to what I need to do.  Oh and yeah, no plants in the aquarium as I took them out and dip them in salt water bath and going to do that for a few days until I see the plant is free and clear of these worms and it's eggs.  Oh speaking about eggs, after everything and everyone was removed accept for the heater, filter and gravel I notice allot of the white dots on top of the water, I'm guessing those are eggs, there are literally hundreds of eggs.
 
This all started when I purchased my snails.
 
My plan is to just empty the tank out and start fresh from scratch, without adding my snails until I know they are completely free of worms and leaches.  I am quarantining them for a good 2 months, before adding them to my main tank again.
 
Can anyone tell me if I can just kill these eggs and worms inside the main tank, so that I can just do a vacuum of the gravel and do a water change instead of starting from scratch?  This is a huge tank and my Julii are all cramped in a 5 gallon tank with my guppies and tetras, so I didn't wanted to wait until the weekend to do this if there is a faster method I can get rid of those nasty things int he main tank.
 
Advise please!
 
 

 

[Akasha72]

I've no idea what this is, perhaps some kind of fly had got into the tank and laid it's eggs (it's all I can think of) I think you've done the right thing by removing the livestock. 
I would do as you are planning and strip everything out. Then clean everything thoroughly. You can buy aquarium sterilizer but I'm fairly sure white distilled vinegar will do it but maybe check with the other guys to make sure.
 
I'm wondering what the best thing is to do with the filter though. I would think that these things will have got in there too. It might be best to start again with that aswell - but again, see what the other guys think. I've no idea what these things might be so someone else from America might have a clue

 

[Munroco]

Is it possible to get a pic?

 

[Bekahsa]

Here is a picture.
 
I have already done my research and I know they are leaches, they just haven't developed yet, and I also have eggs in the tank. I have a few leaches, they came from the snail, they are also known to come with new plants and ornaments.  But I know for a fact the snails is the one that brought them.
 
I had my tank and never did I get this until I got my snails.

Oops! forgot to attache the pic.  Here it is. Nasty!

 

[HarpyFishLover]

EWWW!! 

 

[Akasha72]

EWWW!! 

 
I concur 

 

[Bekahsa]

Yep!  Good thing all my fish are some place safe until I can clean this tank out on Sunday and with some vinegar to disinfect the tank and make sure all those suckers are dead.
 
Now, I know what to expect next time.  Good thing I don't have a heavily planted tank as yet.

 

[Munroco]

This looks more like some sort of algae to me. Maybe this...http/www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=2

 

[*pete*]

Good grief... never seen the like in all the years I've had aquariams, made me feel quite sick !!!

 

[Munroco]

Ignore previous reply, I'm an idiot, that's a marine algae.

 

[RCA]

Yuk! I use thin bleach to sterilise equipment etc., then rinse thoroughly and allow to dry out. I would agree with others they will be in everything! Can you share a link to the research pertaining to these? Poor you what a nasty discovery.

 

[Baccus]

That certainly is an impressive collection of worms. At first when you where describing them I thought perhaps they where bloodworms, tubifex worms or even something equivelent to Australias Black worms.
But after seeing the picture I am thinking more likely to be a population explosion of some type of detritus worm. They usually occur in tanks but only build up into plagues when normal tank maintence like vacuming the gravel is not carried out and if there is no predators to eat them. I would not use any chemicals to kill them since that much death will cause ammonia spikes. Instead I would do a large 50% (maybe more) water change and suck out as many of the clumps of worms you can while also giving the gravel a vacum. Once the source of their food is removed (all the muck in the gravel that wasn't getting vacuumed) any remaining worms should keep their numbers in check.
I actually added black worms to my tanks to help in the cleaning of the tank while also adding a food source to many of my fish, my catfish and loaches adore them along with nearly all my other fish.