Small crawling white hair?

[katana1200]

Ok, so I have 2 clutches (2 weeks apart) hatched and growing up in the nursury tank, a 2.5 gal eclipse mini-bow. I just went over to check on the wee ones and have found what I thought may have been a very small cat hair, or piece of cotton thread against the glass. Then it moved. Very wormy movements. Then it popped off the glass and floated around the tank for a bit and, oh hey, there's another. The 2 I've spotted now are less than 1/2 inch in length. Maybe closer to 1/4 inch. Are these planaria and will they harm the babies? If not planaria then what?

 

[BioHazard]

Sounds like nematodes. Harmless, but may be a sign of too much debris. Clean the substrate really well. Its normal to have a few though.

 

[katana1200]

Thank you, I did a quick google search on nematodes and the picture on the freshwater/saltwater encyclopeda page was pretty much it. It would make sence though since I am placing larger amounts of food in there for the small ones to graze on through the day. Also been very hesitant to vac very much as I dont want to suck the little pinhead sized briggs up lol. Will have to cut back on feeding and try to do a bit of spot cleaning with the ole' turkey baster.

 

[RodInCALIFORNIA]

i have had those from feeding alot of fresh veggies in my snail baby rearing tanks I just cut back on the food and do a real big water change and in a few days they are always almost gone. They dont seem to hurt anything but they just dont look great in a tank tho.

 

[BioHazard]

Yeah, once the babies get big enough, they will eat them. So just consider them a bonus pending food source.

 

[psyche]

I agree, just detritus worms. I think more water movement and stirring the gravel also helps keep their numbers down.

 

[BettaFishMommy]

Yeah, once the babies get big enough, they will eat them. So just consider them a bonus pending food source.

this is true. i have never once seen any in my planted tank. pretty sure my 30 odd briggs keep them nommed down.

 

[Arakkis]

could be a hair worm, was it long.. like over an inch? might want to deworm your tank.. they aren't particularly dangerous but can look disturbing to see a 5inch worm in your shrimps head

 

[katana1200]

could be a hair worm, was it long.. like over an inch? might want to deworm your tank.. they aren't particularly dangerous but can look disturbing to see a 5inch worm in your shrimps head

Nope, these are fairly small, less than 1/2". Thank you for the heads up though, I will keep an eye out for this type of thing.

Also, thank you all for the quick feedback.

 

[brittanyd0203]

I had the same problem about 7 months ago when I was looking at my tank in my dorm room. I saw all of these long hair-thin worms crawling near the gravel and I freaked out. I gathered a sample and took it to my biology professor and we check it out in the lab. Turns out it was detritus, which isn't anything to worry about. After a bit of online research it appeared that I was simply overfeeding. I still have them in my tank but I've seen that my betta frequently plucks them off the glass and eats them between feedings.