White worms came with plants?

[Kithy]

Bleh so I noticed after buying some plants that I had some white worms in my goldfish tank. Assuming it was from overfeeding I cut back on how much they've been getting and been siphoning out water every day to try and remove them. Did a water change on my 20g with the betta and that tank has them too so it's definitely from the stupid plants.

What can I do? I think they are nematodes? They look like them.



I can't manage any pictures of them. Most are pretty tiny and the width of a hair.

[bettaluver14]

wow bleeeehhhhhh!!! try some aquarium salt... most worms dont like it and will die

[Kithy]

Originally Posted by bettaluver14

wow bleeeehhhhhh!!! try some aquarium salt... most worms dont like it and will die

Don't know if that's safe with the snail in one tank and a pleco in the other :X

[Butterfly]

can you take the pleco and snail out while you treat the tank? The only thing that the salt says is to be wary of plants in the tank, as some can be sensitive....
here's a thread that says plecos cannot tolerate salt...
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/l...551525917.html

[Kithy]

I might be able to but a 10g for a pleco with minimal filtration might be pushing it. It might not be specifically nematodes the more I look at them. I'll try to get a picture or something to be sure.

[sandybottom]

do they wiggle, or seem to glide along the glass. if they glide i think they may be planaria. planaria with other microrganisms make up infusoria. are there other specks swimming in the water?if you do, these are infusoria. it's hard to tell from the pic. if they are planaria, don't squish them. they can split into two and regenerate. i just had an infusoria outbreak. i didn't feed my betta for a week. my betta was fat and the infusoria couldn't be found. did you by chance get elodea or java fern or moss?

[Kithy]

I think that they were along the glass till I gave that glass one heck of a scraping on the front side.

I hate to say it but I think most of the big "worms" were pleco poop xD She seems to poo white-ish stuff(most of my algae seems to be in a clearish form). I was just shoulder deep in my tank to rearrange some plants cause the goldies were digging it up and I got a real good look at most of the worms. Some of them look like planaria, especially the ones that are super tiny and are like, stuck to the glass on the back and sides. The rest I think is pet hair /sigh.

I feel silly now :3 Good to know planaria is safe.

Off topic but does anyone know if goldfish would ever eat a pleco? MIL and I had a disagreement over it.

[sandybottom]

no, not unless it's already dead. the pleco could suck on the side of the goldfish and make them sick. they start to get a taste for slime coats as they mature.

[Kithy]

It's the same color of the algae on my mopani log :X

So I don't really want to move everyone just to find out it was poo or fur but the more I watched it the more I think it is poo. My fantail has been looking more and more like a girl lately so I also wonder if maybe it's reabsorbed eggs but that specific uh, piece was not over there until I scared my pleco to the right side of the tank.

I saw some stuff in my betta tank that was significantly smaller but he ate it right up so I'm not even going to worry about him :p

[Kithy]

Originally Posted by sandybottom

no, not unless it's already dead. the pleco could suck on the side of the goldfish and make them sick. they start to get a taste for slime coats as they mature.

That's what I thought. She was saying, and I quote "well if the goldfish don't get enough to eat they'll kill her and eat her" I just gave up after that. She never thinks I feed my fish enough because they "always look hungry". They don't have stomachs, of course they're hungry. But they're fed adequately.