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Most likely a parasitic worm of some sort go to your local fish store and get the proper med. Not walmrt k mart or gaint you fish store. oh and it might get some more replies in the hostpital

I have put in the parasite clear tank buddies and have since done a water chenge. The water quality is much better. I may do the treatment 1 more time to be certain that the unwanted critters are gone. I don't want to add fish to soon. How do I know when it is safe to begin adding new plants and fish?

If you have a Petsmart near you try them. They have lots of Jungle stuff, as does Walmart.

Ok I was misleading when I said rock, I ment gravel. We did a water change and scooped out the old (plain blue) gravel and added (multicolor) gravel. I also added new plants. I have not had good luck with this particular fish stores livestock (my parents have had problems with saltwater fish from this store also. I never thought that adding gravel and plants would be a big deal. I have not been able to find parasite clear tank buddies but will keep looking. As for th snails I scoop out any that I see several times a day. It has helped alot.

Hmmmmm - when you added the rock, eh?

Yank that baby outta there and let's do a vinegar test to see if it fizzes.

Dry it off, then take ordinary kitchen white vinegar and put a drop on an easy to see area. Look carefully for any signs of fizz or bubbles. If you see this, do not put it back in the tank - it will continue to put calcium into the water and ultimately driving your pH up.

This should be done with gravel too.

Hint: Many rocks that will make the water harder and drive up pH are really light or white. If you have white veins in the rock, be sure to check those with a drop of vinegar.

That tank needs to be hit with Parasite Clear TAnk Buddies to kill off the anchor worm and other vermin.

Did you get this rock or any plants from an outside source or pond? Was it at a fish store that had outdoor ponds?

If you have snails, you need to remove as many as possible and the best way to remove masses is with pieces of lettuce you set in the tank and pull out when it is loaded with feeding snails. These will carry the anchor worm bug and for this reason, you may need to hit the tank several times with Parasite Clear. I don't know if this will kill snails, but be prepared to remove dead snails as they will cause an ammonia spike if left dead in the tank.

BTW. Thank you for posting pictures. Some of the worms that I had in the tank were anchor worms. What I see floating in the tank now are tiny pink worms, and attached to the glass I see tiny white worms (not as much now as there was a week ago though. They dont seem to be bothering the CAE.

With water changes my ph has come down to 7.6, I will continue the water changes. The amonia and nitrate are 0 the only thinf that was out of wack was the ph. This all started when I put new plants, and different rock in the tank. The chinese algea eater seems to be doing fine although I am not sure how to go about feeding it. Do I need to do anything special to feed the CAE. He is one of my the first fish and has been in my tank for over a year.

How is the CAE doing?

We need to get parameters on this tank to make sure it isn't just the worms. Whatever you do, please do not buy more fish at this time. It may be easiest to break the tank down and start over, especially if something happens to the CAE.

Do they look at all like the pictures? Those do not kill fast, rather fish get infections and eventually can die. Of course, if there is ammonia or nitrite in the tank, it will make them succumb quicker to any parasite attack.

Somehow these fish, or the water, any plants whatever, became exposed to something that was carrying parasites. Did you use anything from an outdoor source - a river, stream, pond, or even a bucket kept outdoors? Have you bought plants lately? Did you ever have fish in there that came from the outdoors?

We need to understand what may have happened so it doesn't happen again.

Have you purchased the Parasite Clear Tank Buddies? If not, please do so as this may save the CAE. But you must know your ammonia and nitrite are zero before dosing or it could make it worse. I would lay odds that you can kill it off with this stuff.

EDIT: Ok, I see you feel the problem started when you added plants. Where did you get the plants? Snails are definitely good intermediary hosts for several parasites.

So sorry that you are having this terrible experience. We have ways of treating plants for bacteria, snails, parasites, etc. so don't give up on that. Once we feel the tank is clear of parasites you can try again, but it needs to be a good long period of several weeks (maybe 5-6) without incident before you begin to rebuild. These things have lifecycles that can make it complicated to get rid of them.

Consider putting a large leaf of lettuce in the tank overnight, then pulling it out when it is full of snails. That will get rid of some. To get rid of all snails, may really take breaking the tank down, as I suggested. But, we have to be mindful of the CAE. If you had a spare 10 gallon, you could get it running for several days and provided temp (using same thermometer) and pH are identical, you could transfer just him. I would keep it bare bottom and put only fake plants and a fake cave in for now, to give him security. I would dose the new tank once with Parasite Clear in case any parasites come across on him or in the net. Then, break down that tank, dump the gravel and plants and then sterilize it thoroughly. If you decide to do this, we'll tell you how you can sterilize. I would use not only bleach, but let it soak overnight with a heavy dose of kitchen alum first to kill off any remaining tiny snails or parasites.

It is possible to have a snail free tank. My 20 long is 2 years old, full of live plants, and not one snail is in there. We have ways of preventing it

Last edited by Cory_Di at 23-Dec-2004 15:13

they are long and now i have only a chiniese algae eater.

What size are these worms? Are they so tiny they are barely visible to the naked eye, or larger and easy to see? By tiny, I mean no longer than a small fish's eye.

If it is very tiny, barely visible, and you see the fish flashing against gravel and objects in the tank, then I would treat with Parasite Clear Tank Buddies by Jungle. It contains Praziquantel which is the leading med against flukes.

If it is longer and you see some with forked tails, then it is lernea (anchor worm).

Here is a picture: http://www.2cah.com/pandora/Disease.html#Lernea

Note the length of it in the last picture - quite long.

Parasite Clear is also effective for Anchor Worms. This medication is quite safe, even for scaleless and sensitive fish and fry (fully developed) at full strength. I highly recommend it and it is usually easy to find at larger chain stores.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4756&N=2004+113521

If what you see is Planaria as Ferret brought up, then I don't know if this will kill them off. In any event, Planaria are harmless and in most aquariums. They are easiest to see crawling on the glass when it is dark. Look when the lights first go on in the room after darkness and you can usually see them on the glass. They are about 1/4 inch long, more or less, and thinner than a thread. Some fish will eat them. People don't often notice planaria until there are so many, they are visible throughout the day. This comes from too much for them to eat in the gravel bed. Reduce that with more frequent gravel vacs, and their numbers go down. Very simple.

Don't play with pH and get ammonia & nitrIte test kits. If you take a bag of water with you to the fish store, they can test it for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and even gH and kH. If you post the numbers (not comments like, "good", "ok", "within range", we can help interpret those numbers). For the record, ammonia and nitrite should always read zero - period. Even 0.25 is enough to stress fish and for prolonged exposure, can even kill more sensitive fish or make them susceptible to disease and parasites.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 22-Dec-2004 11:59

One thing I want to point out, stop using the chemicals. Most of the time they do more damage then good. Your fish will adjust to whatever ph you have, please don't try to lower it using chemicals.

Have am doing 20-25% water changes and bringing down the ph (which was at 8.2) with chemicals, it is now at 7.2. There is only a chinese algea eater left in the tank. The problem started when I added new plants that (I didnt know)had tons of snails on them. Besides taking the plants out and getting as many snails out as well as doing water changes is there anyhting else I can do to help my tank become healthy again? btw The tank has been cycled for over a year now.

Sounds like anchor worm to me, I can't think of any other parasitic worm For meds, check out Parasite Clear tank buddies by Jungle. They're easy to measure and use. If that's not available, LifeBearer is another good anti-external parasitic med. Don't let them talk you into buying ich meds or salt, as you need something stronger to kill these buggers. The salt may help soothe your fish and slow the buggers down a bit though, so you could pick some up anyways. Aquarium salt, that is.

in my 20 gal. i have white worms high ph about 8.2. help me i od no tknow what they r or where they came from. no ammonia


Last edited by fishfins at 21-Dec-2004 15:50

Last edited by Lindy at 30-Dec-2004 04:53

yes the worms are attached

So there are fish in the tank? If there are, are the worms connected to the fish? (please answer in somewhat sentences, it helps) If it were me I'd go down to the lfs and get some parasite medication, and follow the directions on the package! Quit panicking, things will be alright... Oh and don't hit walmart for the meds, was just at mine, and they don't carry any...]:|

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Wont look FishFins, if you dont want me to.

why do u keep lokking at my forum clownyn

yes

Okay...I'm still a little confused. This is what I'm getting...

You have a 20 gallon high, with no fish, you don't know the water params, and there's white worms. Correct me if I'm wrong.

If you don't have your own test kits, stop by the nearest LFS and get you're water tested. Almost ALL will do it for free, just bring a small sample to the store with you.

EDIT: Does it look like this





Last edited by FerretFanatic at 21-Dec-2004 15:54[/font]

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish