[Mousie]

Planaria are not white, they're very dark in color. They're short, fat, and have a triangular shaped head. The only way you can get these into your tank is by adding plants that you did not dip or quarantine first. Planaria are carnivors and fish will not eat them. If you have them in your tank you will have to add medication to kill them.

Detritus worms are light in color, skinny, long, and you cannot tell the head from the tail. These little worms are in every healthy tank and are part of the little echo system in there. Think of them as trash compactors... they eat uneaten food and live under the substrate.

If you see drtritus worms above the substrate this means you have not kept the substrate clean (gravel vacs keep their population numbers down). What happens is they run out of oxygen because there's too much gunk, so they rise to the surface of the substrate so they can get more oxygen. This can be dangerous because they'll use up too much of the oxygen in the water column. This is bad for the nitryfing bacteria and can be dangerous to fish who use oxygen from the water column.

Do not add any medication to the tank to kill detritus worms. Do gravel vacs to bring down their population. You don't want to remove them all, just the majority of them. It's perfectly fine if your fish eat them.

 

[Mousie]

The nitrifying bacteria in your filter (they consume the ammonia in your tank) need the oxygen in the water column, even if your betta doesn't.

I don't know how you would clean sand. My 20 gallon cichlid tank has fine sand, but the fish in there are constantly sifting it all over the place. I just vacuum up what's on the top of the sand with a homemade airline tube vacuum. I don't think I've ever seen detritus worms in there though.

Detritus worms are not harmful to humans. Check here just to be certain that detritus worms are what you're seeing. http://www.fish-as-pets.com/2007/11/planaria-detritus-internet-answers.html

 

[Mousie]

Also can i put maybe two cory cat fish to sift the sand for me.

Depends on the tank size. Look them up at Live Aquaria and see what the aquatic veterinarians recommend for tank size.

One more thing will cory cats stir up the sand enough so toxic gasses don't build up in the sand?

It's better not to depend on a fish to do a specific job, or to add a fish to your tank to do a specific job. Just stir things up a bit when you do your weekly tank maintenance.

I do have an airstone is that helps the water column whatever that is?!

An airstone helps to provide oxygen to the water column and prevents bio-film from building up on the surface of the water. If you already have a fitler, then the airstone works in conjunction with that.

Lol one more thing again! The worms i am seeing is like litteryly 1-4 mm long. I'm not sure if they are babies or what. I have no clue how they even got here.

What was the question?

I'm sorry to bother you again but can you please answer my questions above thanks

Sorry, I was busy getting enguaged (finally!). I generally do not spend every day on the forum.

 

[Mousie]

Thanks for helping me! I do have one more concern well not one but a lot. The worms seem to be multiplying and getting a lot pretty fast.

If you're dealing with detritus worms, the only way to lower their numbers is to clean the substrate. I deal mainly with gravel, so someone would have to help you regarding sand.

Also if i stir up the sand do the worms tend fly every where? If they get to many can they find there way into my betta fish gills?

I don't know. Detritus worms are not physically harmful to fish.

And will the worms affect water quality. I have been doing more water changes to try to suck them up and got a brine shrimp net to try and scoop some out. The amount of these worms scare me.

You might not be dealing with detritus worms. I recommend adding a bunch to a container and taking them into a LFS (not PetCo or PetSmart... go to a local mom and pop type of place) and asking them what they think.

Oh yeah will cory catfish help oxygenate the substrate so the worms will stay down there and not come up for oxygen?

No, they won't.