help there are nasty things in my water!!

[kwbear3]

i was doing my routine cleaning of the gravel and saw some baby fry in the tank so i started to suck them out of the bad bucket water and into a fry tank when i noticed some nasty looking white things all over in the water. they are shaped like leeches but the biggest one i see is only 2-3 mm long they are gross. can anyone tell me what they are and how to get rid of them without killing my fry?

 

[BLASK]

maybe old food? what do u feed them?

are you syphoning fry?!

 

[kwbear3]

it couldn't be old food, that was my first thought so i started poking at them with a toothpick and they were flopping around. that's when i saw more at the bottom of the bucket, it was really gross i had my hands in the water to get teh babies out. these things were moving around.

 

[charmd2]

odds are they are planaria, completely harmless, normally a sign of overfeeding, do a search on here for planaria and you'll see pictures of them and more info.

 

[kwbear3]

thanks for all swift replies i will definetely be letting the fish have some planaria for dinner. i'm sooooooooo glad they are harmless i was worried they might have been a lice or a fluke type thing. thanks again.

 

[kwbear3]

aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh will the planaria eat my danio eggs and fry??

 

[charmd2]

You know, I'm really not sure, they might. Someone should come along in a moment or two who knows the answer. Just do several thorough gravel vacs over the next week or two, and cut back a little on how much you are feeding, and they will disappear rapidly.

 

[SirMinion]

Planarin worms. Harmless but icky.

various species shown here...
(larger than actual size.. thank heavens!)

 

[Dwarfs]

Yeah that sounds like planaria, hold off on feeding for a few days to let the worms clear up a bit

 

[kwbear3]

thank you all again, i will definetely not feed the fish for a couple of days. blech . they are sooooooooooo gross. i'm just glad they are harmless!!