white worms in fishtank

[Ariel]

so yesterday night i was checking all my critters, putting them to bed, turning off lights, when I noticed something in my crowntail battas tank. little white worms, everywhere! they were tiny and there was looked like eggs only they moved too!! I was astounded! I immediately removed my betta. I have yet to acctually clean the tank, though I'm more likely to simply trash it, I have an extra (he's in a vase right now). I wanted to find out what these things were before I rid of them. I checked all my other bettas tanks and they don't seem to be infested, and it doesn't look like they transfered with him. So I'm hoping he, and my others, are safe. I don't have a picture, they're just to small, I'm going to take a sample into work tomorrow to check them out under a microscope.

 

[Mack&Cass]

They're probably flatworms...generally a harmless scavenger that's found in most aquariums. Population explosions are often due accidental overfeeding. Your best bet is just to clean out the tank and watch your feeding.

 

[Ariel]

alright. thank you. I'm still probably just going to get rid of the tank, theres just an overwhelming number of them. Plus It was once a divided tank, but the other betta died. I have a single tank I'm going to put him in, I think that will be better.

 

[blazetown]

I had a few breakouts of similar white worms that swam with an obvious head. I thought they were some species of flatworm as well. The only difference is the ones you usually find in aquariums are embedded into little cocoons in your filter. I couldn't tell if they were parasitic or not but I ended up throwing a ton of bleach in the infested tanks.

 

[Ariel]

these ones didn't swim, but more clung to the wall, and there was no obvious head or anything. Along with those there were little round off-white things crawling the walls, and also were all over the rocks of the tank.

Since I took the betta out I've kind of left them be and have acctually been observing them, and since taking out the betta, and thus stopping any food being put in the tank I've noticed a severe decrese. almost all the worms are gone with a reduced number of the off-white circlular ones still crawling around, mostly among the rocks where there are still food particles sitting.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

My nephew got small white free-swimming worms in his piranha tank. These were little white undulating swimmers. I presumed they were nematodes of some sort, but I'm no authority.
It took a lot of cleaning just to get them under control. I haven't talked to him about them in a while, but I don't think he ever fully eliminated them. I never thought to ask him if he remembered to fully sterilize his filter. He claimed that he sterilized everything in the tank. If that's true, I guess the fish themselves could have been recontaminating the tank.

 

[Ariel]

I think most nematodes are microscopic. I'm not to worried about reinfection, I'm tossing the tank and everything in it. the betta is in a vase right now and I've seen no signs of the worms or round things reaccuring in there.

 

[eelnoob]

These whiteworms are harmless to fishes. You'll noticed a population explosion from either too much nutrients in the water due to overfeeding and not enough water changes.


A few water changes and they should be all gone.


Throwing bleach or detergents into a fish tank is a not really good idea if you're planning to use the tank for fishes again.

 

[blazetown]

I never used soaps because they linger but if you use pure ammonia bleach you can wash it all out with very hot water. The more parasitic seeming white worms popped up in my predator tank as well. I remember watching my small gar grab one and it wrapped itself around his snout until he let go. Thats when I decided to quarantine them and bleach the heck out of all the equipment and tank. I also made sure not to touch the water anymore just in case. I'm assuming the OP's worms were flatworms and these worms were some parasite that came in on feeders or in WC fish.

 

[sean-820]

Its called planaria. Its caused by overfeeding so there is rotting matter that they eat. This means you need to do larger water changes and they will be gone in a week. They wont hurt your betta though. Also, get the betta a 5.5g a bowl is just cruel.

 

[Ariel]

Its called planaria. Its caused by overfeeding so there is rotting matter that they eat. This means you need to do larger water changes and they will be gone in a week. They wont hurt your betta though. Also, get the betta a 5.5g a bowl is just cruel.

he's not in a bowl. he was in a vase after I removed him from the infected tank, before I could get the extra set up, I hate keeping fish in bowls, they get so nasty, very quickly. Now he's in a 1.5g airrated tank

 

[LeilaNami]

he's not in a bowl. he was in a vase after I removed him from the infected tank, before I could get the extra set up, I hate keeping fish in bowls, they get so nasty, very quickly. Now he's in a 1.5g airrated tank

That is still very small. When given the proper environment, bettas are active fish. He is going to need more room to be able to thrive.