Three nopety nopes in my filter.

[marnold00]

Hey all,

Before i get in to this, i believe the cause is over feeding so ive changed my feeding plan.

Soooo did my water change, rinsed filter media aaaaand. On the plastic casing of the cartridge which holds the round ceramic loops there was 1 of these things, and on the second cartridge which essentially catches all the fish poop and other rubbish there were two of them.

APOLOGIES FOR NO PICTURE. TURNED OUT RUBBISH AND THEYRE DEAD NOW.

so what is them? Well all were the same. Brown/black in colour, completely smooth (no rings or segments or hairs) pointy headed worm things. They changed size a lot. Anything from 2-3 mm long to an inch!

Any ideas what they could be?! Im thinking a type of planaria or detritus worms of some variety. There is nothing on my fish. No bite marks/missing scales or whatever. I cant find any in the tank itself either.

I know this is from over feeding - there are also teeny baby snails which i also disposed of. From ensuring my catfish are eating ive realised the barbs are getting two big meals a day. So im gonna alternate between pellets and flake from now on.

I do 40-50% water changes weekly. I have a sand substrate and dont really vac it. Just kinda swirl the siphon around over it to get what i can. The cories do a good job of swirling the sand about every day anyway.

Im not particularly concerned as theres no signs on the fish and im confident theyd just get eaten.

I resisted the urge to nuke my filter as that would cause more harm than good. Might be worth changing filter media though? The media is 3 months old.

I know the lack of picture doesnt really help here.

 

[marnold00]

Sorry just to add this is a planted tank aswell so i guess the plants are the source

 

[cowgirluntamed]

I had drain fly larvae in a filter at one point. Might Google that to see if it's what you had. I believe I just didn't clean my filter out good enough so the flies were attracted to it.

 

[marnold00]

Hmmm not sure - i havent noticed any flies and the larvae seem to be clearly segmented and even more nopier than my nopes haha mine were definitely smooth. Also pretty indestructible. Couldnt squish them

 

[thrujenseyes]

Sounds to me like planaria. I found a few of these about a year ago when I think I was over feeding.
I only found two and I removed and never saw more ...thank god. But I read that your fish can snack on them if they find them.
I thought it was a poop until it clearly started wriggling like a snake and I was horrified.
Upon closer inspection I could see it's head was triangular.
This is a super close up shot I found online:

 

[marnold00]

I agree im thinking planaria. Ive had the odd one in the past but the cherry barbs always eat them! Just these guys are safe in my filter until i found them

 

[thrujenseyes]

Ew. "Safe in filter". Scary stuff in there sometimes!

 

[Munroco]

Could be some sort of leech. They change shape as they move.

 

[marnold00]

I was thinking that munroco! Glad to know it wasnt a silly thought. I sincerely hope that they arent of the blood sucking variety! Id expect to see issues with the fish...

 

[budified]

Just remember not to change ALL of the filter media as you need the established media to maintain your cycle...

 

[Ch4rlie]

Indeed, I agree that you should not change the filter media. After all, that's where a lot of your bacteria that's needed resides.

Rinse the media in old tank water and reduce your feeding. Keep an eye on things. And hopefully these planeria worms will eventually go away with a bit of luck.

Fingers crossed that will do the trick after a while.

 

[marnold00]

Bbbbbbbut setting fire the the whole thing would rid them for good nah i wasnt gonna swap the media. I rinse anyway every week! Fingers crossed though

 

[Ch4rlie]

Bbbbbbbut setting fire the the whole thing would rid them for good

Hmmm, how do you set fire to water?...........

 

[marnold00]

Heat the water to 3000 degrees C to break it down into hydrogen and oxygen and then let it cool and then burn the hydrogen in the oxygen. Not only will this set fire to everything as intended, but it will simply reproduce the water as a byproduct i think...


Edit: and turn my fish tank into a hydrogen fuel cell and make billions of money.