Loaches Online Forum

Discovered something a bit shocking today when I looked into my aquarium. On the inside of the glass were tiny (less than a millimeter in length), white, spindle-shaped objects, and they were MOVING.

Okay, obviously they are worms of some sort, but I have no idea specifically what they are, where they came from (nothing has been added to the tank except water in months), how to get rid of them, or even if they are harmful to the fish.

Having no idea how to deal with the situation, I tried adding salt to the tank. No change so far, but the salt concentration is still very low (I will be slowly increasing it).

Do any of you have any idea what these tiny white worms are? How do I get rid of them without killing my fish?

Nevermind, I just figured out that they are harmless detritus worms.

Apparently I am guilty of overfeeding my fish, causing a population explosion among the ever-present worms.

OMGoodness!! Glad you were able to answer your own question. How are the fish doing? Did you get the worm population under control?

The fish were never affected by the worms, fortunately. Turns out that they are completely harmless, just one of those biological indicators that lets you know that you need to fix something in the tank.

I cut back on the amount of food, and the worms went back into hiding a week or two later.