# Incredibly tiny white worms..?



## lilyth88 (Mar 15, 2012)

My boyfriend noticed these itty bitty worm-like creatures inching along the glass in one of our NPTs. What are these? Are they harmful?


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## Artemis (Mar 9, 2013)

Can you get a picture? It could be pin worms, intestinal parasites or some other worm I don't know the name of.


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## lilyth88 (Mar 15, 2012)

Artemis said:


> Can you get a picture? It could be pin worms, intestinal parasites or some other worm I don't know the name of.


They are too small to get a picture of. They are super tiny, and white, and just inch along the glass of the tank.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

They are probably just detritus worms or something similar. Most of the near microscopic worms and things you see in tanks (particularly planted tanks) are harmless.


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## Otterfun (Dec 31, 2012)

My Curios Grace eats them like candies, they are fine, it means you either have a lot of food left over or have not vacuum for a while.


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## shellieca (Jul 12, 2012)

+1 with otterfun.


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## lilyth88 (Mar 15, 2012)

Hard to vaccuum as I have sand and soil....

I just kind of let things fall where they may. I have 4 Amano Shrimp in with Chronos and 5 in with Echo. They each just received a Nerite Snail today.


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## CrazyDiamond (Feb 20, 2013)

I also have a pretty bad detritus worm infestation, it sucks when they are the first thing you notice rather than your fish or beautiful plants. I currently have gravel but I have been battling these worms for so long now I am switching to all natural tomorrow, completely draining and cleaning everything in the process. But yes it is caused by over feeding, especially with carnivorous fish even their feces is high in protein and causes outbreaks :/


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I find if you also have a lot of organic matter such as decaying leaves in your tank, they also seem to become very prevalent. 

Because of how I set my tanks up, I get a ton of worms and copepods. I don't overfeed my bettas, but there is a lot of decaying organic matter and I think this seems to encourage a growth in their numbers.


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## lilyth88 (Mar 15, 2012)

LittleBettaFish said:


> I find if you also have a lot of organic matter such as decaying leaves in your tank, they also seem to become very prevalent.
> 
> Because of how I set my tanks up, I get a ton of worms and copepods. I don't overfeed my bettas, but there is a lot of decaying organic matter and I think this seems to encourage a growth in their numbers.


There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of decaying matter other than the shrimp moltings. I only noticed them in Chronos' tank. I feed him 2 pellets in the morning and 2 at night and he eats them right away, so it can't be over feeding. I wouldn't have noticed them if my boyfriend hadn't pointed them out. I'm not too concerned about them if they don't hurt anything.


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## CrazyDiamond (Feb 20, 2013)

I tried a bottle trap and left it in over night and it knocked their numbers back pretty good, did not totally get rid of them though but there are far less now. I don't think they cause a problem, in small numbers they can be a good thing because they help keep the tank clean. But too many and they can become an annoyance. Also if they are not detritus but rather planaria they can kill shrimp and fish eggs.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Planaria and detritus worms are two different things. Planaria are larger and have a sort of pointed head segment.

From the OP it doesn't sound like planaria.


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## CrazyDiamond (Feb 20, 2013)

Yeah I got a magnifying glass and looked at mine, they are segmented with teeny hair-like legs :/ pretty gross looking xD


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## lilyth88 (Mar 15, 2012)

I don't have a magnifying glass handy, but they definitely don't appear to have a pointed head. If they weren't moving, I'd think they were just a tiny tiny whisp of white cat hair or something. Will the betta or shrimp or even snail eat them?


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## CrazyDiamond (Feb 20, 2013)

My fish Floyd eats them, his side of the tank will look so clean compared to Freddie's, Freddie will not eat them -__- idk why I reckon he's just finicky.


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## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

My girl picks copepods and worms off the glass like candy. Before I got her, I was stressing out over how to get rid of the nuisances (they're not harmful, just annoying). With occasional vacuuming with a turkey baster and her helpful grazing, I have to look really hard to find a single individual 

It's likely that some bettas will eat the worms and some won't pay any attention to them. What you can do is more frequent water changes if you don't see enough debris to vacuum since excess nutrients is a big factor in their growth.


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