Thin Brown Worm In Gravel?

[giles2005]

Hi there i have just setup my tank with a base layer of aquarium substrate then my very fine gravel (sand) with a few plants that i put in a couple of days ago in total the tank has been setup for two weeks.
Iv just added four mollys to begin with yesterday.
The problem is i have just noticed that in the gravel there is a very thin almost brown coloured worm not very long in length i cant seem to find out what this is and what i can do to get rid of them if there are more which i would guess there are! Any help would be great

 

[glolite]

You are in a fish-in cycle. Read the "New to the forum" pinned articles as to what to do.

I don't know about the worms but you need to be doing frequent water changes on your tank/

 

[loraxchick]

do a search for tubifex worms. prob. came in with your plants. i had that happen to me. they come in IN THE ROOTS of new plants, crawl out of the roots once planted and they live in the gravel (ive never seen them in my sand tanks). can reproduce pretty fast. gravel vaccing helps reduce them, as does cutting back feeding. i feed them to my fish. live food and cultured in my own tanks so as disease free as any could be. they actually are beneficial as they eat detritis, and can be indicator of some bad water chemistry in your tank. if you notice large losses of their numbers when you clean, there could be osmething off in your parameters. nice bio indicator species to have around.
see if you think that is what you have. they are nothing to worry about and would be a nice treat for your fish if they find them. folks sometimes call them "dirty" and that they cary diesase but that is only becasue they CAN live in heavily polluted solid waste areas (like where raw sweage, which breeds disease, is pumped out into a watershed. if they live and reproduce in your tank, hardly a chance they are carrying "nasties".
all the best.
*sry for typos

 

[giles2005]

do a search for tubifex worms. prob. came in with your plants. i had that happen to me. they come in IN THE ROOTS of new plants, crawl out of the roots once planted and they live in the gravel (ive never seen them in my sand tanks). can reproduce pretty fast. gravel vaccing helps reduce them, as does cutting back feeding. i feed them to my fish. live food and cultured in my own tanks so as disease free as any could be. they actually are beneficial as they eat detritis, and can be indicator of some bad water chemistry in your tank. if you notice large losses of their numbers when you clean, there could be osmething off in your parameters. nice bio indicator species to have around.
see if you think that is what you have. they are nothing to worry about and would be a nice treat for your fish if they find them. folks sometimes call them "dirty" and that they cary diesase but that is only becasue they CAN live in heavily polluted solid waste areas (like where raw sweage, which breeds disease, is pumped out into a watershed. if they live and reproduce in your tank, hardly a chance they are carrying "nasties".
all the best.
*sry for typos

Thank you so much loraxchick that ws the little git, most have come in from my plants i ll wait for him to come to the top of the gravel and then get him out. Iv been keeping fish for years and this is the first time iv ever seen them normally its snails.

You are in a fish-in cycle. Read the "New to the forum" pinned articles as to what to do.

I don't know about the worms but you need to be doing frequent water changes on your tank/

Cheers for the reply im ok with cycling the tank it was just identifying the worm that was the problem.