Why Wont They Die?

[Just_Another_One]

My little six gallon eclipse betta tank is INFESTED with little squigly white wormy nematodes and it is extremely disgusting and I cant stand it anymore. It all happened when i decided to move some plants from my old 65 gallon tank that was infested with them. I rinsed them well but i guess that wasnt enough...

One time i took the whole tank to the bathroom and scrubbed it all out with hot water but within a week they were back full force covering the walls and i could see literally thousands of babies smaller than a grain of sand moving around on the glass.

So last night I had enough. I couldnt even look in his tank anymore it was so disgusting. I moved my betta out to his old 2.5G tank and I syphened out as much water as i could and filled it with the hottest tap water I could get from the taps. I threw out all the plants too because i knew there was no way of getting them off those. I took the little Elite Mini filter apart and dropped it to the bottom of the tank so it can soak in the hot water. I swished around the sand to make sure the ones hiding down there would be exposed. I let the tank sit for a few minutes then I syphoned all of it out and filled it up again with more almost boiling water. I repeated this for about an hour and overnight i left the hot water in there.

Well since ive woken up this morning ive spotted about 4 or 5 of them squirming around, nothing like i had at all before but i know how fast 4 or 5 can turn into 1000's...

Im terrified of these little things and just want them gone

Does anyone have a better way to get rid of them???

Im going to repeat my super hot water ritual here in a bit with hopes that soon i wont be scared to look into the tank

 

[joshrm115]

can you post any pics??

 

[Truck]

if you put your filters with bacteria, in hot water then theyre going to have died

 

[Just_Another_One]

can you post any pics??

I wish i could but there way to tiny to catch on camera.. about a millimetre or 2...

if you put your filters with bacteria, in hot water then theyre going to have died

lol thats okay... its a betta tank and its never been cycled.. Ive had my guy for 3 years and i just put a filter in with him 2 weeks ago so i dont think its been cycled

 

[Colin_T]

the white worms that appear on the glass sometimes are usually caused by too much rotting material in the gravel and by too much uneaten meat food. The easiest way to control them is to do regular water changes and gravel cleans. Clean gravel will allow small numbers to live there happily and they won't come out unless the gravel gets really dirty.

 

[Just_Another_One]

the white worms that appear on the glass sometimes are usually caused by too much rotting material in the gravel and by too much uneaten meat food. The easiest way to control them is to do regular water changes and gravel cleans. Clean gravel will allow small numbers to live there happily and they won't come out unless the gravel gets really dirty.

yep... unfortunatly i know this which is why im baffeled on why i cant get rid of them... i was doing 50% water changes every 3 days and making sure no dead plant matter was rotting on the sand ever... i made sure i only fed my betta one pellet at a time so no food would ever hit the bottom... i just dont understand it and it makes me sick to think about them

I just got finished emptying the tank and filled it up with hot hot hot water and about a half a cup of salt so if this doesnt kill them i dont know what will

 

[Colin_T]

They are in every tank and aren't normally a big problem. Usually once the conditions in the substrate get better the worms go back into it and you never see them again.

Some medications will kill them but might affect the fish. You could try using a wormer like Flubenol or a copper based medication. Alternatively remove the gravel and put it in a pot, then pour boiling water over it. That will kill anything in the gravel. After an hour you can rinse the gravel and put it back in the tank.

 

[three-fingers]

I would cycle the tank and wait for it to become established, probably a few months.

They seem much more common in newly set up tanks, and I can only presume this is because in established tanks they cant compete with bacteria breaking down organic waste.

Unless you destroy every last one of them and never reintroduce them to the tank (which is quite unlikely) the problem will persist.

Rigorously cleaning the tank will only make things worse. I used to have LOADS of them in my goldfish tank when I would replace the filter whole sponges often.