# How many of you have actually seen your fish eat Planaria?



## Capsaicin_MFK (Nov 15, 2009)

I've tried to feed them to fish but they never go for it. If you can find it, Clout will take care of them.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

Capsaicin_MFK said:


> I've tried to feed them to fish but they never go for it. If you can find it, Clout will take care of them.


Thanks for your input. I am willing to use chemicals if need be, the planaria is just gross... I will try a natural method first, I am just wondering if any of you had success with fish that eat the worm. If not, I won't wait and just use the de-wormer stuff. I found some planaria in my external canister this morning, I would freak out if they multiplied in my filter (in the coarse filter foam, ceramic rings, etc)... eww!


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## Patriot (Dec 22, 2010)

I could be wrong but I don't believe fish touch them. It them bad in a certain spot in my tank and every time I turn the lights on they would be covering everything. And fish didn't even notice them, maybe because they are against the glass, I had to vacuum the substrate.


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## whimsical54 (Nov 19, 2011)

I never heard of them so I looked it up and found this link check it out ~~http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/planaria_white_worms/


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## Patriot (Dec 22, 2010)

They are harmless and will die off the food source goes away.


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## TexasCichlid (Jul 12, 2011)

I have planaria in both my nanos right now. I don't overfeed and they are low bio-load with nerites and bettas only. One of my bettas will eat them voraciously when they are swimming. The other betta does not see very well, and leaves them alone. Both tanks are cleaned and receive ~60% water changes every 5-7 days. Not sure how I got an outbreak. Going to cut feeding the bettas for a few days along with some more water changes and see if that helps.

edit -- actually, when looking at pictures of them online they don't look anything like planaria. They are very small, narrow and white. I find them swimming in a S wave fashion, or crawling on the glass. Marginally thicker than a strand of hair, and about the length of an eyelash -- usually less.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

Thanks guys fro the input. I will stop feeding for a while and see what happens.

I tried to find de wormer medicines (for dogs and cats) here in Hong Kong, I can't find any of the brands that fish keepers recommend for planaria, and most of the de-wormers I have found here don't contain the same ingredients as the ones used in aquariums...

I guess all I can do is stop feeding and see what happens...

Thanks guys.

TexasCichilid, those little worms should be eaten by most fish, including small fish. I had a BUNCH of those back when my 8 gallon tank was a cherry shrimp only tank, they would dry out above the water lines, making it gross and hard to scrub. I introduced some Chili Rasboras, and a week or so later, all the little white worms were gone and never seen again.


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## garfieldnfish (Sep 25, 2010)

I have them in several of my tanks and it took ages in one empty tank until they finally disappeared. I have none in 2 tanks with cory cats, but I am not sure if the corys eat them or just dig in the gravel enough to eat the left over food themselves. In a 3rd tank with corys I have planaria but those are hastatus (dwarf corys) and they might just be too small to eat the worms. I have had good results with cutting down on feeding and adding MTSs and apple snails. I also pick out the planaria about 1 hour after lights off when they come out to feed. I use a pipette to suck them up. Their numbers have considerably dropped since I aggressively went after them and I hope to eliminate or at least make them not noticable in just a few more days. I cannot use chemicals as it would also kill the snails. But it is time consuming. I have a number of different fish and I do not believe any of them (with the possible exception of the corys) eat them. I am also planaria free in my African dwarf frog tank. Planaria are very sticky and I have seen them getting stuck to shrimp, I am not sure if they can hurt shrimp, but the shrimp had a hard time shaking the worms off. That's when I decided to go to war against them.
TexasCichlid what you have is detritus worms. I would love to have them. Also from over feeding but my black darter tetras would love it if I had some.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

Interesting thank you for the input. I actually just went on the local Hong Kong forums, and one of the folks mentioned using a local de-worming medicine for children that contains Mebendazole, they say all livestock (fish and shrimp) are okay after treatment, leaving only nerite snails and planaria dead. Okay by me! I will just move my nerites and assassins to my 8 gallon. So I will go ahead and try the de-worming medicine for children, I am just too disgusted by the crawling white worms, and if it happens to kill some of the pest pond snails too, all the better!


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