# Worms from new plants?



## Leotah (Oct 28, 2015)

I just got some new plants last week which had snails on them so I did a bleach mixture to rid them of any remaining snails or eggs. After rinsing them off, I went to add them to my tank tonight and saw wiggly white worms come off of them and swim to the bottom of my tank. What do I do?! They disappeared into my substrate and my betta ate one before I could do anything like scoop him out! Should I worry these are parasites? Should I change my substrate.


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## Leotah (Oct 28, 2015)

Another worm looks red. They are all super skinny. As thin as hair. Idk what to do here...


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## meeree (Sep 8, 2015)

I have a strange red worm in mine too. Saw him once or twice and havent seen him since and he doesn't bother anymore


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## Leotah (Oct 28, 2015)

Hmm well they weren't affected by bleach when I treated the plants... They must be really tough. Scary lol


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## Mousie (Feb 16, 2015)

Leotah said:


> I just got some new plants last week which had snails on them so I did a bleach mixture to rid them of any remaining snails or eggs. After rinsing them off, I went to add them to my tank tonight and saw wiggly white worms come off of them and swim to the bottom of my tank. What do I do?! They disappeared into my substrate and my betta ate one before I could do anything like scoop him out! Should I worry these are parasites? Should I change my substrate.


Skinny light colored worms that are tapered on both ends (ie; you cannot tell the head from the tail) are nine times out of ten detritus worms. Fish will eat these if they see them, which is OK. It's fine if you have detritus worms (those are _supposed_ to be in every tank).


The darker short fat worms with triangular shaped heads are planaria. They are carnivorous and will take advantage of sick fish that move too slow. Fish do not eat planaria. You definitely do not want them in your tank.


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## blue5 (Nov 6, 2015)

I had the same experience. I soaked a plant for a week in that purple stuff before i put it in a tank. I used a brand called Jungle ??. I read it would kill snails and hitch hikers. I started seeing ramshorn shells in the tank. I picked them off as I saw them. They were adults. I siphon the gravel every week. This time I saw many squiggly worms in the bucket of siphoned water. It was gross. Couldn't get rid of them till I used a dewormer.


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## Leotah (Oct 28, 2015)

Oh thanks for the information! I went a step further and looked up both of the things you said. 

After researching both detritus worms and planaria it looks like what I have in my tank are actually nematodes. 

The move like snakes on top of soil and in the water. When I try to remove them they disappear beneath my eco complete.


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## blue5 (Nov 6, 2015)

Yes, the worms were nematodes. I didn't know I had them til I siphoned my gravel.
I never saw them swimming in the water. Maybe you can siphon your substrate to lessen the numbers.


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## Mousie (Feb 16, 2015)

Leotah said:


> Oh thanks for the information! I went a step further and looked up both of the things you said.
> 
> After researching both detritus worms and planaria it looks like what I have in my tank are actually nematodes.
> 
> The move like snakes on top of soil and in the water. When I try to remove them they disappear beneath my eco complete.


What kind of nematodes are you referring to? I know of camallanus and round worms, both infest fish and require medication.

Detritus worms go inside of the substrate. There's only a very small handful of sites out there that can properly distinguish the differences between nematodes, planaria, and detritus worms so be very careful.


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## blue5 (Nov 6, 2015)

Mousie, are these the non-parasitic nematodes? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxnY5pRYZGc
They live in the substrate. When the substrate is disturbed, they come out swimming into the water column.


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## Leotah (Oct 28, 2015)

Idk what kind. Although they do look exactly like that video!


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## Mousie (Feb 16, 2015)

Detritus worms are annelids, not nematodes. Detritus worms can piggy back in on plants which is fine. Just let the fish eat them. The video is of detritus worms.

However; when they don't come in on plants, the only time you see detritus worms above the substrate is if there's an over abundance of rotting organics in there. The worms have soooo much food to eat and they end up reproducing like crazy (population explosion). Once that happens they begin to run out of oxygen, so they rise to the surface of the substrate to breath. This is dangerous because that many worms use up a ton of the oxygen in the water (harmful to the good bacteria in the filter, and harmful to fish who use oxygen from the water).

Weather they come in on plants or weather they pop up from the substrate is more reason to either quarantine for 30 days (plants, fish, snails, shrimp) or ensure that you are doing good gravel cleanings on a regular basis... instead of just scooping out the water like I see so many posting about. Gravel cleanings keep them from over populating. Otherwise they are a natural part of the little echo system in your tank. Even if you were to never add plants, detritus worms would always be in the substrate.

Planaria.. now those are different. Dark, short, fat, kind of flat and has a triangular shaped head, The only way they can get into your tank is by piggy backing in on plants. You definitely do not want them in your tank. Fish will not eat true planaria.


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## Leotah (Oct 28, 2015)

Thanks for all the info! At least I am learning all of this early on.  

I haven't quite figured out how to clean my substrate yet. I'm using eco complete and everytime I try to syphon out the fish waste I end up removing a lot of the smaller grains in my substrate.


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## Mousie (Feb 16, 2015)

Have you considered capping the substrate? Something you can research further if you were interested.

There's quite a few YouTube vids that show ways to vac plant substrate, so maybe you could check those out.


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