Planaria

[sjolliff]

Iv just done a 90% water change to kick start my cycle again,

when i turn on the light to have a quick look it was full of planaria

iv put a dose of king british white spot in just in case, coz of last time when i had a problem with leeches,

how can i get rid of them?

 

[sjolliff]

Just found this on another website;

The good news is that those little critters are totally harmless to your fish. They are a type of planaria and are simply feeding on excess waste in the tank. The bad news is the reason they are thriving in your tank is that you've been overfeeding. Medications and chemicals have little effect on planaria. Planaria freaked me out too the first time I saw them in an overfed guppy tank many years ago. They survived even a bleach treatment on the whole tank (I took the fish out first of course). Planaria have to be "starved out". They don't touch your fish so don't worry about that.

The first thing to do is cut back on feeding the fish. Cut back by 50%. The rule of thumb in feeding fish is that whatever food you put in the tank must be totally consumed from all areas of the tank in 2 to 5 minutes. If you feed twice a day, it's 2 minutes. If you feed once a day it's about 5 minutes. The goal is to allow the fish about 5 minutes of actual eating time per day. If there is any food floating around or on the bottom of the tank or on the decorations after that time, you are overfeeding. Even if the fish eat all the food eventually it is just too much for them to digest properly so they produce more waste and eating too much could also make the fish sick.

The one thing you want to try to avoid is cleaning the whole tank out. Your fish will have to suffer through another episode of new tank syndrome if that happens. It's pretty stressful for them and some or all may die. You should be making water changes and vacuuming the gravel now though. Replace 25% of the water right away and vacuum the gravel lightly. Do a 25% water change every week but only vacuum the gravel every 2 to 4 weeks. That schedule is normal for any tank, no matter what kind of fish you have.

You may see more planaria for a little while as they come out of their hiding places to look for more food. They aren't increasing in numbers, just easier to see. They will die off and the fish may even eat some. It's good for your fish to do that. It's natural live food they would seek out under normal circumstances. Since the fish were so well fed, they just didn't care to do that.

 

[indigoj]

water changes and reduce feeding - do some vigorous gravel vac-ing, 50% of the tank at a time. nasty looking lil buggers but pretty harmless.

 

[glolite]

Good bit of info

 

[sjolliff]

What can i do while fishless cycling?

i dosed some King British White Spot, which is copper based and kills inverts

but iv since learned planaria is not really affected by meds or treaments, dont know what there living on as there is no food or nothing
unless there feeding on the scum layer on the top layer of water due to the fishless cycle process and no WC or algae?

 

[glolite]

You can do water changes as indigoj said, just remember to top up the ammonia after.

 

[sjolliff]

Iv just done a 90% change and re-dosed, next time i do a WC will be when i get ready for fish.

Do fish eat them?

 

[glolite]

Not sure if fish eat them but this might help

www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/planaria_white_worms - 81k - Cached

 

[sjolliff]

Cheers that was a spot on site,

i guess the salt draws them out, does it affect fish?

whats this quickcure?

 

[glolite]

Don't know what quickcure is but as for the salt, you'll get rid of it when you do that last big water change at the end of cycling. A weeny bit of salt won't hurt the fish. Indeed, it's used as a treatment for some diseases in fish. Catfish and scaleless fish are sensitive to salt but in minute quantities it won't hurt them. Also catfish are usually the last addition due to them not adapting to newly set up tanks and by that time you'll have done loads of water changes.