# Detritus worms in NEW Shrimp Tank



## Dropline (Dec 30, 2014)

Hey all, 
I just setup a 20 long tank for some 'Sky' Blue Velvet Shrimp recently, shipped good and they seem to be ok, the ones that are NOT hiding at least. I started to notice little threads in the brown algae near the substrate. At first I thought it was a higher form of algae but then realized they MOVE. They are white small and look like 'Earthworms' no noticeable head\eyes so I take they are Detritus worms. 

Should I worry about this? They sort of gross my wife out so I looked up that I can take care of them with 'Fenbendazole' so I bought some from PetCo and have the 'small' package. Should I kill them off or will they die back on there own? 

The tank has been setup for 17 days and it has been cycled since Sunday night (Seeded and did fish-less). Added the shrimp Tuesday and 3 berried ones, so wonder if this will be bad for the baby shrimps?

Thanks in Advance, 
Tom

PS: If I do nuke them. Do I need to do to remove the 'Fenbendazole' from the water with carbon or just a water change?

EDIT>> Adding this
Substrate is 1" of mineralized topsoil with a sprinkle of Dolomite Lime, Murate of Potash and I think it was .62 lbs of Red Clay. Capped with about 1" of Flora-Max.

"Quick Cycled" with my Eheim 2215 by rinsing the the sponges in declorinated water then dumping out the "can" into the bucket and running the Finnix 360 I had laying around filled with poly-fill and Eheim Substrate Pro until the bucket with dirty filter water was 'clean' then put that on the 20L filled with dechlorinated water and added ammonia.


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

The worst part of fenben would be the dead, rotting bodies it would leave behind. If you're not worried about a mini cycle don't sweat it, but if you are do a water change.
Honestly detritus worms aren't bad at all, but planaria are. No triangular heads = not planaria.
If you plan on keeping snails/are keeping snails, be aware that they will be killed by fenben as well. I am beginning to suspect nerites are sensitive to even minute quantities.


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## Dropline (Dec 30, 2014)

Yukiharu said:


> The worst part of fenben would be the dead, rotting bodies it would leave behind. If you're not worried about a mini cycle don't sweat it, but if you are do a water change.
> Honestly detritus worms aren't bad at all, but planaria are. No triangular heads = not planaria.
> If you plan on keeping snails/are keeping snails, be aware that they will be killed by fenben as well. I am beginning to suspect nerites are sensitive to even minute quantities.


This is pretty much shrimp only tank. I did sort of "age" it some so there is a lot of algae and stuff going on in the tank. I would not mind if it was 10-20 or 50.. but there are 100+ and some in water. I did not think about the mini-cycle from rotting worms.. hmm.. maybe I will just let things play out. 

Would tossing my OTOs in there for a few days to clean up the extra alae help? there is a TON of it and even a little of that blue/green on the substrate and the AR leaves. Actually started on the AR leaves then moved to gravel.


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

Otos mostly eat brown algae, dust algae, and biofilm. They will not eat bga.


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## Dropline (Dec 30, 2014)

Yukiharu said:


> Otos mostly eat brown algae, dust algae, and biofilm. They will not eat bga.


Thanks, I realize that I meant to mention 90% of the algae in the tank IS the brown dusty stuff. I just thought cleaning it up a little would help stabilize it. One of the shrimp that is in hiding the eggs looked a lot bigger and I think she was about to drop so I am afraid to actually CLEAN the tank right now. 

I thought the OTOs would help with that being I hear they do not even both baby shrimps. Wish they would eat the worms.


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## Curt_914 (Oct 6, 2007)

What about throwing some corries in the tank for the worms? Mhen I kept dwarf corries I never saw any issues with them going after shrimplets.


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## Dropline (Dec 30, 2014)

Curt_914 said:


> What about throwing some corries in the tank for the worms? Mhen I kept dwarf corries I never saw any issues with them going after shrimplets.


To be honest, I do not really like the look of corries. My sister had them and something about them just bug me. I am just going to deal with it for now. If they go back into the soil and stay then cool.. if not I will wait till my shrimp population grows a little and then nuke them.


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## ravensgate (May 24, 2012)

In new tanks you will often notice a quick boom of fauna. Rhabdoceola, copepods, detritus worms, etc. They can come in on plants and often eggs will be dormant on substrate. I've had them appear in brand new tank with nothing BUT substrate (no plants, decor, livestock, nothing but substrate). Once the tank matures you will see less of them. Detritus worms serve a great purpose eating leftover debris and aerating the substrate a bit. Dosing a tank with anything to kill things that are harmless is a big risk to you shrimp colony. You really need to weigh pros and cons before going that route in my opinion


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## Dropline (Dec 30, 2014)

ravensgate said:


> In new tanks you will often notice a quick boom of fauna. Rhabdoceola, copepods, detritus worms, etc. They can come in on plants and often eggs will be dormant on substrate. I've had them appear in brand new tank with nothing BUT substrate (no plants, decor, livestock, nothing but substrate). Once the tank matures you will see less of them. Detritus worms serve a great purpose eating leftover debris and aerating the substrate a bit. Dosing a tank with anything to kill things that are harmless is a big risk to you shrimp colony. You really need to weigh pros and cons before going that route in my opinion


Thinking about it more last night that is what I am going to do. Going to keep the meds around in case some other critters show up in any of the tanks that are less friendly. 

I really do not mind them that much. I actually have a colony of red wiggler composting worms in the basement. Pretty low population right now being I have not fed them much since we moved in to this house, but had close to 10k a couple years back. Ate an entire pumpkin after Halloween in about 48 hrs.  So less worried about them the more I think about it.


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## jarvitron (Aug 6, 2012)

I'm spamming this around lately because I just heard about it and really like it but haven't tried it yet.

Instead of using dewormer to kill the worms, you just move the shrimp to a holding tank for a day or two, then fill the tank with cheap club soda. The ultra low pH shocks all of the lower form life and kills it (hydra, planaria, worms, snails).


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## Dropline (Dec 30, 2014)

Thanks, the numbers have gone down a lot. So letting them do their thing.

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