Hi, I 've been looking at my tank's water and found tiny white worm crawling around. From reading online it seems to be planaria worms which appear from too much crap at the bottom of the tank.
First of all, can they crawl on my hand and somehow into my skin? infect me somehow?
Second, what do you recommend i do to remove them?
Thanks!
(if you're a moderator, could you check why my aquarium picture's haven't appeared yet? its been a week)
Fish tank's got planaria worms in it. How to kill them?
6 posts
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gumbii - Posts: 1695
- Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 3:31 am
i would shock your system...
take out fish... take out all of the water... put fresh water from the tap full of chlorine and everything... and wash your gravel with it... do it a couple of times...
i'm pretty sure you could medicate the tank with parasite clear or something... but this way is more efective, and faster/easier...
i do that to all of my tanks like every year or every other year... i get a small nitrate spike and that's it... back to normal...
just don't run the the filters on with thier bio media in the filter...
take out fish... take out all of the water... put fresh water from the tap full of chlorine and everything... and wash your gravel with it... do it a couple of times...
i'm pretty sure you could medicate the tank with parasite clear or something... but this way is more efective, and faster/easier...
i do that to all of my tanks like every year or every other year... i get a small nitrate spike and that's it... back to normal...
just don't run the the filters on with thier bio media in the filter...
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MonkeyChunks - Posts: 101
- Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 9:42 am
To do an experiment, I threw a big teaspoon of salt and some anti-itch medicine into this 3 gallon tank. Seems like it made all the worms come out from under the gravel. It seems there are many more than I thought. I am not sure if eitehr of those substances will kill them. I will check the aquarium store to see if they ahve some cures too
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yasherkoach - Posts: 1306
- Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:24 pm
gumbii gave a good site, you should check it outmonkeychunks. It appears that if you throw 2-3 catfish into the tank, you should rid the tank of this parasite. The catfish will eiliminate this parasite in the long term.
Also, for a 3 gallon tank - something I frown upon, I think every aquarium should be 40 gallons and more just the sake of freedom for the fish - you shouldn't have so many fish in the tank, so possibly if you strip the entire tank down like gumbii explained, wash everything thoroughly and start from scratch with a few catfish to begin with, you may not have this problem again.
Or you could get a bigger tank. Bigger tanks are much easier to maintain.
I hope this helps
Also, for a 3 gallon tank - something I frown upon, I think every aquarium should be 40 gallons and more just the sake of freedom for the fish - you shouldn't have so many fish in the tank, so possibly if you strip the entire tank down like gumbii explained, wash everything thoroughly and start from scratch with a few catfish to begin with, you may not have this problem again.
Or you could get a bigger tank. Bigger tanks are much easier to maintain.
I hope this helps
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MonkeyChunks - Posts: 101
- Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 9:42 am
oh yea, I do intend to get a bigger one. This small 3gal tank is a temporary place fro 2 african frogs and 3 danios.