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So today idid my usual gravel vac/20% water change/trim the plants. I filled the tank back up and went to go clean out the canister filter. I come back to find that there are realy fine white threads floating through my tank and clinging to my fish and plants. So far, everyone seems to be okay, but I have no clue what this stuff is. Any ideas?

It sounds sort of like the critters I had in one of my ten gallon tanks. Some of them were shorter than others. When I looked at them with a magnifying glass, I could see an area at one end that was a bit wider than the rest, and what looked like a mouth. I think they are some sort of nematode.
I have no idea where mine came from - perhaps a newly introduced pleco or some plant bulbs?
My tank was so bad, I cleaned it all out, bleached it, rinsed it and just finished setting it back up a little while ago, to cycle again.
The two remaining fish from that tank act like they are sick and won't eat (have them in the 29).
Do yours swim in a strange sort of S pattern? (The varmits, not the fish, that is.)

Coffeeman,
I did find something that worked for wipeing out the critters, the night before I stripped it - those fizzing parasite tabs that Walmart sells ended their activity, but my tank was still so full of dead ones, even after another gravel vac, that I just dumped it all.

Fortunately, mine wasn't anything that bad. Whatever it was, it's gone today.

The "threads" have probably just settled into the substrate. Were they moving at all, indicating that they are some kind of worm? Or were they more like a filamentous algae of some sort?

It's also possible they they could some kind of pet hair or fuzz that somehow got in the tank (perhaps during maintenance).

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.