Worms And Fleas?

[Joespanna]

I have found some worms in my tank which are about the size of blood worm but about two hairs thickness, but instead of red they are light pink. They are very wriggly aswell, and sometime lots of them in a ball together. There is also something swimming around which I can only dicribe as very small, light greenish-white and look like a flea type thing, well they are too small to see in any detail. Has anyone got any ideas what these two things could be, and if they are harmful to the fish and/or me?

 

[bubblesburst80]

sorry i cant help you, just hope you get an answer soon

xXx

 

[Joespanna]

I have also found some very small white worms on the glass , so I went to a branch of Maidenhead in Crowland (England)(Wyevalle Garden Centre) and they said that is was due to over feeding (I have been away and someone was looking after them for me) so they said cut back the feeding and clean the gravel well. Using chemicals would distroy the bacteria in the filter , so they recommended having a couple of Gouami (no idea if I spelt that right) they would gladdly eat the worms. Cool, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[-germ-]

Yeah most aquatic worms will be happily snapped up by an a greedy fish like gourami, try here for ID purposes;
http/www.bgsd.k12.wa.us/hml/jr_cam/macro...x.html#flatworm
As mentioned by the LFS most worms only thrive in poorly maintained tanks (not an implication just a fact) so upping the gravel vacs etc should help.
I'd be worried about the flea type thing in case its larvae of some sort, haven't had time to browse the link i've provided but see if you can ID it.

 

[Joespanna]

Okay, so I cut back on feeding the fish for roughly a week, then cleaned the glass and took time cleaning the gravel. Things seemed to have settled down. Nothing on the glass for the last four days, won't know about the gravel untill I do another clean, but I haven't seen anything, for a while. Looking good. I just hope I havn't spoken too soon.

 

[NutMutt]

Yuk! So keeping up with water changes and gravel vac is the best way to avoid these critters?

What about using a UV light pump in this case or as preventive maintnance?