# little white worms?



## jeffvmd (Apr 16, 2010)

Looks like planaria.
I've used fenbendazole before and they do the trick.
Here's a link on an article where I got the "formula" I used to treat my shrimp tank before.
http://www.planetinverts.com/killing_planaria_and_hydra.html


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## neilshieh (Sep 6, 2010)

planaria. from overfeeding. these move like snails, like gliding over the surface. get prazi pro. fenbendazole is a bit of a pita to use. get the 1 fluid oz of prazi pro on [Ebay Link Removed] you don't need much and itll kill other parasites too. easy to dose, doesn't kill the bio bacteria harmless to shrimp and plants and stuff. i use this stuff, its great


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## Huckins91 (Jan 19, 2011)

If you have fish that can handle it, aquarium salt has always worked for me. I put it in (whatever the recomendation on the package is) and the next day they are gone.

Come to think about it, seeins as I'm fairly new to the PT part of this hobby, is salt ok in PTs?


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

No, salt not good for plants.

Fenbendazole works too.


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## Navigarden (Jun 25, 2010)

+1 Fenbendazole. General rule of thumb is .1 grams of Fenbendazole per 10gal. The packs I have used come in 1 gram doses. I had no scale so I just divided it up into 10 "eye ball" equal portions and dosed 1 of the portions. Wait at least 2-3 days before dosing more as it seems to have an effect over time. After a few days do a large WC (make sure to vacuum the gravel well) and run some carbon in your filter a while. 

I had no issues when I dosed my tanks in this manner, HOWEVER, it will kill nerites and other snail species (had no effect on my stupid pond snail population though).


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## theemon (May 22, 2008)

where do i get this fenbendazole?


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## kozlany (Feb 25, 2009)

ebay, tractor supply, places that sell livestock wormers. It's an animal wormer that's been around for years. Dog sized packages are easy to manage than cattle sized ones.


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## theemon (May 22, 2008)

i thought dog-dewormer (and maybe other dewormers) had other chemicals besides fenb.


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## Navigarden (Jun 25, 2010)

Petco/ petsmart. I believe the brand I got was Safeguard? I'll check when I get home. Just check the drug lable.


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## torsp (Dec 19, 2010)

What you have are detritus worms *not* planaria. There is *no* risk whatsoever to your shrimp with them. However excessive amounts of them is a sign of things the keeper is doing to allow them to proliferate. The difference in their populations from one aquarium to another will be in the keepers maintenance and feeding habits/methods. So to keep them "in check" modify your feeding schedule & remove any uneaten food within 2 hrs and have a substrate cleaning routine. 

I am new to this faction of the hobby but prior to planted tanks and inverts I kept large tanks with predatory fish for the last 10 years so the above advise is from personal experience. It is frustrating to see that every time someone asks what type of worm they have in their tank the first response and many following that say it is planaria, 99% of the time this "identification" is wrong.


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## theemon (May 22, 2008)

your wrong torsp, because of these:

1 i am loosing shrimp.
2 the substrate is clean.
3 the tank is somewhat new, with the substrate only added maybe 2 months ago.


im only concerned because im slowly loosing shrimp, only in this tank.


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## Navigarden (Jun 25, 2010)

I've had the opposite experience as torsp ... The only worms I have had in my tanks were planaria absolutely 100% positive (Pic ID, movement, SAW it kill a shrimp  very weird and sad). 

As many as you have in your photo though is a sign of over feeding your fish... shrimp really do not need very much food put in the tank as they feed on algae, microorganisms, and scavenge other bits.

How much do you feed and how long do you leave it in the tank?
Also what exactly is the fauna stock in this tank?


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## theemon (May 22, 2008)

i feed a very small pinch of flake food daily(well 6 times a week) yeah i know thats alittle too much, since this pic ive cut that in half. but the all the food is eaten almost instantly.

the only think in this tank is yellow shrimp and java moss


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## torsp (Dec 19, 2010)

Hello theemon, I am sorry for the issues you are dealing with in your tank but the worms in the picture above are not causing your shrimp casualties, there is another reason.
I have gotten detritus worms within 30 days of setting up a new tank, age of substrate is not an issue since with established substrate you would possibly see them quicker from an already existing population. Bottom line detritus worms are going to be present in damn near every tank but the levels may be low enough that you will not see them.

I initially responded to correct the mis-identification of flat worm species in this topic and in so many other threads on fish/aquarium forums. Next questions would be: 
How many yellow shrimp or other species of shrimp in tank? 
Size of tank? 
Temperature of tank? 
Water source of tank and its Kh, Gh, and Ph?
My 1st instinct if problems arise in a tank is to get NH3, NO2, and NO3 levels, do you know those or have you checked them since this die off started?
Have you made any changes in the tank before the die offs began?

I do not keep yellow's but I have RCS and blue pearls which are "cousins" of your yellows and have the same husbandry requirements. Bottom line one of the easiest shrimp to succeed with, so something else is really off(IMO it is not those worms). I recently had an outbreak of detritus worms in one of my 10g's(less than 30 day old tank) and over two weeks have gotten it to a point of seeing maybe a couple of worms on my glass every night as compared to 8-10 or so at a time when I started dealing with reducing their population. I did this by reducing my feeding, that is all it took.

Regards, and good luck with resolving your problems in that tank.





theemon said:


> your wrong torsp, because of these:
> 
> 1 i am loosing shrimp.
> 2 the substrate is clean.
> ...


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## FlSHRFun (Jun 26, 2010)

I'm no pro when it comes to worms... but, I have to agree with torsp.
These look like regular detritus worms, not planaria. I've seen planaria in local fish stores. Never in my own tanks.
However, I have dealt with detritus worms in nearly all my tanks.

From my experience, detritus are much smaller than planaria.
Planaria appear thicker, have pointed heads, and their "eyes" are somewhat visible.
From the photo provided, those look too small to be planaria.

I'm not gonna' go off and say who's wrong and who's right.
But, worms are a good sign of water quality. Perhaps cut back on feeding and do a water change.


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## Beclaurela (Mar 1, 2013)

These are NOT Planaria. Planaria you can actually see the heads of with the human eye. Planaria look more like aquatic slugs. You have Detritus worms in your tank.


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

Torsp is 100 percent correct here. These are NOT planaria. 

You can not see arrowheads on them. I have them in ALL of my tanks, and they aren't deadly. 

One person who knows the true name of this species is ravensgate.

------
EDIT:

Allow me to rephrase a little. You do not have planaria in this picture, but it doesn't mean you don't have them in the tank. Look for a worm that looks almost like this --> you can see the arrowhead on a thick body, and you can also see eyes on the arrowhead. Big and little, they look like this.


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## Aganor (Oct 6, 2013)

i also have this detritus worm, and i understand how i do have them, since my tank is new and had lots of dead matter and dirt,

now i see less of them but sometimes i still do see them beneath the substrate on the front glass or getting cauth by the flow and controcing their bodies in an attempt to swim,

I was worried of them because of my shrimps, but seems harmless then,

My 15lt shrimp tank has a lot of them, but the tank is clean, and i feed shrimps with comccumber and alikes, or shrimp waffters from Ocean Nutrition 3 days a week, dunno if its overfeeding because it takes 1-2 hours for them to eat the waffles and i to remove the fresh vegatables, but when i did my last WC and scrambled a bit with the current, i saw a liot of them gliding on the water.


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## xavinovic (May 30, 2012)

I wonder if you blast it CO2?


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## bostoneric (Sep 7, 2011)

Nope. Nothing you can really do. They are usually always present if you realize it or not. 
Where do they come from, I have no idea. I've seen them in brand new tank during the cycling phase with nothing in there but substrate. 

All you can really do is control the population by not ever feeding. Some fish will enjoy picking at the worms, but most of us don't mix fish and shrimp so we just deal with it.


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## jczernia (Apr 16, 2010)

I have to agree with torsp,
I wish I could find panda Loaches again they kept my tanks pest free and when young they are nice looking fish.


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