White Worms In Your Aquarium? Everything You Need to Know About Detritus Worms | DIY Reptiles
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- čas přidán 12. 10. 2020
- In this video, I talk about the unsightly little creatures I found living in my aquarium.
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I also post about animals and plants on Instagram:
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I didn’t realize how creepy fish keeping would be 😖 I have plants in my tank and there are so many snails and these strange worms. Its so creepy clearing them out but i love my fish so i gotta face my fears i guess 🤷♀️
I just got freaked out after spotting 2 worms today in a newly set up tank (2 weeks fishless cycling). Relieved, if still a bit disgusted, to find your vid. Thanks for posting ☺️
3th week cycle here :) same as you 🙂
Don't be relieved. This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. He's just guessing.
They are nothing to worry about, they are actually very beneficial and can provide an excellent food source. Great addition to a tank and the tanks food web.
If that's what they are.
I got so worried when i saw them in my tank, in my WHOLE life of owning tanks ive NEVER seen this. Idk who the culprit is but as long as they dont cause harm, theyre welcomed :) they remind me of parasites though
They are certainly unsightly, but they have not been an issue in any of my tanks.
does this worm bring no harm?
newbei here😅
@@dexterbravo4011 Yes, in short, the worm itself brings no harm.
I've been monitoring them ever since I noticed small ones floating and crawling around some of my tanks. From what i can tell they form from dead rotting plants and fish poop. So I think everyone's going to experience this at some point.
I think this is something several aquarist go through. I had a 125 with the same issue thinking it was parasites as well.
You can boil your driftwood and rocks before adding it to your tank to prevent contamination or infestations.
Excellent advice. I'd extend that to sand too. You don't have to have it in boiling water for long to kill most eggs and cysts. It is always better to be safe than sorry.
Haven't seen these but I don't use sand or any substrate similar. Could that be the reason I don't see them in my tank?
I have this in my blue tail guppy tank And it was out of water so I tried separating the body but it got in water and it’s separated and more worms in my tank
Can any one tell me what can be web like thing which continuesly expanding all over tank glass and on other things in aquarium
I had this problem (even thousands of them-both detritus and planaria) then I tried checking for solutions online when I came across your video. I was about to medicate my tank but I wanted to do it as naturally as possible. Medicine will be my last option. I wondered why I didn't have any worm with my previous smaller tank when I only had a betta and 2 Corydorys. Unfortunately, my Corys died in the process of transfering/transplanting them to a bigger tank without isolating my fishes (big mistake!!!). Only the betta fish survived. Long story short, I tried maturing/cycling my new tank for a month with just 1 female betta. That's because I also wanted to wait and grow my plants from seeds and a couple of plants bought from the pet shop, etc before I introduce more fishes. To my surprise three weeks after, there were thousands of them all over the glass and like you said, they were very disgusting it bothers me knowing there are worms on my tank! So I went to the pet shop, bought me 6 guppies, 12 tetras, 3 corydorys. After 1 day, problem solved! I couldn't see a single worm on the glass! I have a 25 gallons tank. 80cmx40cmx30cm dimension. Just incase someone out there has the same problem and looking for a more natural better solution. Enjoy your Tank!
I am very glad you got things figured out! Most likely the worms will never completely leave your tank, but they will be out of sight in the substrate. Because of this, it is possible they were in your last tank hiding in the substrate. The good news is that they are not really a problem if they are in your substrate eating detritus. Thank you so much for sharing your experience!
@@DIYReptilesme facing same issue, is it because I moved the sand substrate while cleaning? Are we not supposed to move it around while syphoning?
Just saw a teeny tiny one swimming mid water in my new cycling nano tank. I'd never seen these before so glad to see this video so I could make sure it wasn't planaria. Honestly I'm happy to see any signs of life in there, my cycle is stalling so want to make sure I'm putting enough food in to keep ammonia production up, this is a good sign to me.
I just cleaned my filter and when i refilled the water i had thousands of these all over the tank. Not sure if it came from filter or if it came from under the sand but that was a first for me.
Likely they are from everywhere. They should go back down into the substrate out of sight.
bc you arent supposed to clean your filter. probably disturbed them, crashed your cycle, etc....
@@OrganicTrash you are supposed to clean the media in the filter every once in awhile
I tried to start a daphnia culture for my pea puffers that died out, then detritus worms took over the container. Can I just raise these to feed my pea puffers? They are getting malnourished because they wont eat frozen food.
I do not have experience with puffers. I looked it up, and it seems detritus works are not going to hurt them, but they should be eating other food. I recommend doing some research on how to get them to eat other things and moving away from feeding detritus worms.
I recently got planaria in a shipment of plants. They proceeded to hunt snails, but since I added fish and have used traps, the snail deaths have lessened and quite a few more have been born. I do not wish to eradicate them as they serve a purpose in population control. Everything in nature plays a role, and Im viewing my aquarium as no exception.
Wow weird, we just found them in our tank literally 2 days after an 80% water change. So they blew up right when the tank became it’s cleanest! Maybe the population blew up right before the cleaning but they stayed in the gravel until now…
What to do with planaria problem?
Really!!! Informative and helpful video🤝🤝🤝
Are these in saltwater tanks too, cause I have a couple in my saltwater tank?
From a bit of research, it does seem that there are detritus worms that can be found in saltwater tanks. That does not mean that what I said in this video applies to them, but from the little that I read, it seems they are just as harmless.
Thank you SO MUCH for this video! I couldn't figure out what type of worm was in my tank, and nothing online was helping me identify my super mall, white, worms that like to stick up out of the substrate and wiggle around all day.
Omg i am blessed for finding this video! i was so mad and so afraid when i saw these horrible things in my tank! now i can sleep easy. I hope when I get my Betta they will go away cause really i don't like seeing them but if not- well... nature knows best.
In theory, if the tank is healthy, they will just live in the substrate out of sight. It is only with an unbalance that they appear all over the tank.
@@DIYReptiles fun fact after i got my betta they dissapeared magically! one day I even saw him eating one of the worms! from then I never saw a single worm in the tank :D
Detritus worm bloom is awesome. Free fish food. They also bloom to clean your tank for you.
Technically you were lucky. You got one of the best cycled tanks 😢
I’m currently fishless cycling my Nana tank with live plants and bogwood. Noticed these thin white worms this morning and was a bit freaked out. Hope my betta eats them when I get it. Never seen them in my 30” tank that’s been seasoned with my fish for 3 months.
Brilliant, I saw one or 2 of these in my aquarium, I thought the fish had some sort of parasitic worms till I saw your video…..thanks. I’ve been keeping fish since the late 1980s and never noticed them before. How the heck did we ever get on without the inter web back then 😂
how do they even appear inside of the tank?
When i see one of them today while cleaning the substrate i thought it was some kind of parasite and got scared ..but now im so relieved after watching this
MAN! I bought about 40 dollars worth of floating plants and when I put water in the small bags I saw a ton of these and shrimp looking things but I haven’t figured out what they were, and I saw one planaria. I freaked when I did it to a second bag and saw the same thing and just threw them away in the trash. Now I’m so upset I over-reacted. I was never aware these worms were even already in my tank until I cleaned it today. I saw a few and then freaked out and put in some API PIMAFIX in it after the water change and cleaning and literally saw hundreds of these Detritus. My Neon Tetras were going crazy eating them which relieved me and not this video has relieved me even more. I thought I had parasites like everyone else here.
What are they called? What is it exactly?
Thanks for this video, it help me to understand what are these...today I found 4/5 these worms while gravel cleaning...😊
You are very welcome. I am glad I could help.
@@DIYReptiles Hello friend! I am your new subscriber & excited to see/ enjoy all your experiences in aquarium hobby, thanks again from Omsk, Russia...🤗😊🌹🌹🌹
how fast do they multiply? I'm worried about them dying and causing ammonia spikes
had the same concern. any feedback OP?
They shouldn't affect ammonia levels as the dead worms are in your substrate and will be vacuumed out while cleaning the gravel. Fish hobbyists breed these as a food source. When culturing they multiply very fast but that is due to a huge nutrient source and ideal conditions. Your average tank doesn't have enough nutrious food for explosive growth. Oatmeal or instant potatoes is the normal food in culture.
I jus wanna know is it harmfull to mine and my crabs health like for example can I still put my hands in the tank and is it gonna hurt my crabs
They will not hurt you, and I have them in with my turtles and fish. I can not imagine that would hurt your crabs in any way.
Thanks for the video! I was stressing when I spotted worms
I seen them when I replant my trimmings.. never mind them...my Cory's usually gobbled them up if they come to the surface 😅👌
I had them apear on a completely empty tank I had a 50 gallon just completely empty getting cycled and than when I put my fish in I saw hundreds of them my fricking hair stood up man
OMG I wish I would have seen this video, I saw some little white worms in my tank and immediately put my fish in a different tank and cleaned and disinfected the tank. I got so worried and thought of parasites. Thanks for the video, now I know.
Will they do anything to humans when we clean the tank? I really don’t want worms under my skin ☹️
Nope. I culture these for my fish to eat. They're 100% safe for you and fish
You will actually find them in your filter media too. Along with copepods and planaria. Mollies eat them tho!
You can peroxide the driftwood to kill them, and a plant dip. I am battling them in my filters. Syringe and hot water!
Thank you for the information!
But my driftwood i wash it with very hot water before put in aquarium
I changed my tank and the water got in my eyes and mouth. After that I noticed millions of these worms in the tank. I tried to kill them with hot water and brand new gravel. They came back time after time. I gave up. Threw away my tank. Years later I found your video and learned they are harmless and helped keep the tank clean.
And the fish love to eat them!
If it makes you feel better I splashes water in my mouth and eyes too before finding out the 100s of worms.. you're not alone. I couldn't drink tap water for a while after that.
@@theturtlegirluk3131 🤣
@@orlandoescobar5174
🤨
I think I got detritus worms bloom in my new(ish) Brazilian turtle tank. I thought they were my floating plant roots, but apparently not. Most likely because I haven't been cleaning then as often as I should. Thank you for the truly educational video! Hope your tanks stay awesome!
You are very welcome! Thank you and I hope your tank does well!
Yeah, even I thought these may be roots of some of the floaters ...🙁
I thought the same.
I leave them be in my snail and shrimp tanks. They are part of my cleaning crew since I cant vac, too many babies in my tank. Sweet potato leaves need descent light on them to not droop
Thank you for letting me know! Have a great day!
i realize Im kinda randomly asking but does anybody know of a good place to stream newly released movies online ?
@Alexander Ronan I watch on Flixzone. Just google for it :)
@Bodhi Brian Yea, have been using FlixZone for since march myself :)
@Bodhi Brian Thanks, I went there and it seems like a nice service :) I really appreciate it !
You have a built in food source my friend.....you can reduce feeding dramatically because the fish will love these.
I just found these in my turtle tank right now as I was cleaning it, I was worried sick for my turtle. There aren't fish in his tank but I do feed him earthworms everyday, so could it be from the earth worms?
I do not think so. They generally come in on other aquatic stuff. Like anything in your aquarium that may have ever been in a different aquarium.
@@DIYReptiles none of it has been anywhere else as far as I'm aware. And the last time he got moved to stay with another turtle (for an hour or two) was like a year ago.
@@DIYReptiles but I did buy him a new filter recently, and I hadn't cleaned his tank in awhile ( he had algae, I found them while cleaning it)
I thin the leaves are droopy because heir heading towards the fish lights which are bellow them
The leaves are not droopy now, and the light is still below them. That is a good suggestion though. I am not sure why they were droopy then.
These worms are attacking my angelfish fry not harmless, amazing videos and channel all the same man
Planaria really aren’t even that bad either. Only a pest when you are trying to breed fish or shrimp. Also a good food source for fish
I started 3 weeks ago a discus fish breeding tank cause they started lay eggs in my aquarium. Every 2 day's I do 70% water change. Now I didn't it 4 day's cause i had something else to do and think one time is no problem and I had directly some thread algae so I cleaned it direcly now. I filled new water and see this worms swimming around.. I was freaked the hell out😅 and want to bring my fishes back to my aqarium. But thank god it's nothing to worry about! Cause this 2 needs to to learn how they can be good parents🐟🐠🐟
Is it safe for may guppy babies ?
Yes, I have not had any trouble with having these and baby guppies at the same time.
24 hours three tank changes for my fish, 212 degree boiling water in the tank, boiled rocks, sub straight and still….still have detritus worms lmao
Bro o spotted two yesterday killed them didn’t think any of it but then today I cleaned the tank AND HUNDREDS CAME OUT 😭 thank you
У меня тоже таких плоских червячков наверное 1000 , и у меня в аквариуме есть улитка " ампулярия " я немного за нее волнуюсь и поэтому я ее убрала в другое место пока я не закончу очищать аквариум от этого
I have no idea what this is saying, sorry.
Yep. Gazillions!Gazillion!! Mine came from the stupid floating moss ball. They are gross and unsightly. Shiver
Feed them to your fish
Got an explosion of them from some Christmas moss, sigh lol
Bro I hope whoever watches this reads the comments and finds this you can use sand from anywhere just make sure you clean it good to get all the chemicals off it doesn't matter where it comes from it'll be safe for your fish as long as they live in Sandy environments
You got it. They help fix your problems for you and add to the health of your closed system. Bonus: fish love to eat them
Got a bunch of them and really freaks me out to clean my tank bare handed. Thought they were parasites. Wew
Could you please explain how you safely cleaned them out? I also have the same problem as I clean my tank bare handed.
I just noticed them today on my 75 gallon. And my angel fish were feasting on them lol
i've got a bunch of them in my frog tank (albino african clawed) and they refuse to leave after 100% water changes, substrate/rock/tank scrubbing, complete filter clean out, etc... they don't seem to be harmful so i guess they're here to stay lmao
Well, I guess I am glad you have accepted it. You could probably research how to bleach your tank to get rid of them. Obviously, you would do that by taking out your frog to put in a different tank first. It is just a thought, but I would not worry about it. I personally have them in my tanks, and they are not hurting anything. I am not concerned with them.
Bro I’m freaking out!!! I used my mouth to vacuum the water and some water got in my mouth. I got so fucking scared !!!
They freaked me out because they're in my 29 gallon that I have a mated pair of black lace angel fish in, so I have fry in It
I have that problem but larger... WAY LARGER. I began to set up a aquarium for a crayfish, I use only dry materials dry drift wood I bought from my locale store and pool filter sand from Home Depot. How ever I never put anything living or food in the tank only the hard scape and a filter with lava rock and filter foam. Cut to about a month or a month and a half and now there thousands of the clinging to the wall and forming little pink clusters of themselves . It’s like they were multiplying 🤮. I drained the water to litter less than half its volume and that only seemed to worsen the problem. I have since taken everything out the sand the wood the filter everything. I just got some new black sand and left the wood dry for a week or so b4 putting it back in. And now it seems like there back bec I keep seeing like 4-5 of them no matter what angle I look, what should I do.
So did you add in crayfish because the worms could have come in on them.
You need to stabilize the tank. Here is a website that describes why these worms have appeared, and what to do about a detritus worm bloom: www.thesprucepets.com/what-are-these-tiny-white-worms-1378753
@@DIYReptiles no I never added a crayfish in, in fact I never put any food in, there was some mold from the carbs on the wood that may have kept them feed. Oh and thx for the link
Add some cichlid or mollies
Those worms are basically in every body of water. Kind of like nematodes in the dirt. Very normal to have in a tank and actually improves biodiversity
Are they harmful to an axolotl?
From what I can find on the internet, it does not appear so, and I really would not think they would be. They are not harmful to my fish or turtles, and it seems, that holds true for axolotls as well.
Came to comment this just found them in my Axolotl tank today
Hey I just found a ton of these in my wifes tank. It's been a month sonce you've posted this video, is your betta still okay? Did he ever learn to eat those worms? My betta doesn't seem to even acknowledge their existence.
My Betta did not really notice them. I found that they are actually in almost all of my aquariums, and they are really not an issue. I mean all of my aquariums are doing just fine. I think that as long as you are doing water changes and not overfeeding then everything will be fine. They probably will not completely go away, but I really do not think that is an issue.
@@DIYReptiles awesome, great video and appreciate the advice. I'll probably get some khuli loaches to keep their population down, apparently they love hunting for those worms. Your tanks look incredible
My neon tetra are doing a fantastic job by just eating these worms 🐛
I got kinda scared seeing one in my tank it was just one. from moving a floating plant and then my Betta ate it 😂
When ever I clean algae of my tank the worms come out and my guppies angel fish sword tails catfish love eating them
Well, that works out really well.
Can i feed these worms to my swordtails cause they are in my shrimp tank and i have baby shrimp in my tank im scared im gonna gravle vac my babies up
@@melissafeinberg2055 I gravel clean with baby guppies but I always keep an eye out (clean on the side we’re they are not there) and these worms are safe for any fish (I have a sword tail as well)
I have like ten tanks never delt with this most of my fish are bettas and my swords are in a 20 gal so are they save to feed baby betts
Corydoras would love that tank
Yep you’re right, they’re true detritus worms.
Yep
one of my fish died .when i pressed her belly i found some white tiny worms coming out of his gills..what is this..plz help me
This sound more like hook worms
It sounds like Gill flukes. So sorry to hear that
My flying fox and siamese love em..
That is good!
Every time I travel clean baby fish g inside and eat the worms
That is great!
See I didnt get these from over feeding, not enough changes etc..I got these little sods because I bought a plastic plant from China! 2 days later I had thousands of them..so..it killed all my fish and I mean all! Due to the stress of the shear number of them, only my snails and cherry shrimp survived..so I got a new tank, new gravel, filter etc and set it all up in tank number 2..took out the snails and shrimp from infested tank to not infested tank, and now? The new tank is crawling with them too!! I can't do frequent water changes due to it now being a shrimpery with tons of tiny tiny babies so I'll just be sucking them all up...how do I kill these things for good?
You bought dry plastic plants from China? Like you mean plastic plants that were packaged? You think these living aquatic worms were brought to your tank by dry plastic plants that have never been in water before? Correlation does not imply causation. It sounds like you are attributing what happened to the wrong thing. A dry fake plastic plant would have nothing to do with what happened. A problem would not arise in two days anyway. It sounds like there was a lack of oxygen in your tank? Anyway, as far as I am aware there is no real way to get rid of these things for good. I do not have answer you are looking for.
@@DIYReptiles well it was perfectly fine until I put them plastic plants in..must of been something to do with what ever it was made from...didnt have a single worm till I put them in
@@alanwake3100 I am not going to argue with you about this.
@@alanwake3100 some cheap plastics can leach chemicals into the tank and affect the pH. I wouldn’t see a correlation with that and worms though.
@@KayM303 well I was able to get rid of them all, I put dog de wormer ( powder form ) in a 10L bucket during a water change, did the water change with the solution added to the bucket..covered the tank making it dark for 2 days..and on the 3rd day..all dead
Oh anf do a 20 water change and gravel vac weekly
If you have mystery snails that's where the worms came from.
Have have a spong filter in my shrimp tank lot of air re dune hole tank and there in my tank there the devil
Nope, no fish keeping for me.
Will vampire crabs eat these worms?
Found one today i new tank set up. Was horrified. Thanks for helping ease my mind. Will tetras eat these
They might. I am honestly not sure, but they should. You are welcome, and thank you for the comment!
I was looking for where I can get aquatic worms as a pet.
I simply would not know how to abstain aquatic worms on purpose. I do not even buy fish, so I really would not know.
I could send you the ones that are infesting my tank lol
You can boil wood. But never boil rocks!
Are they parasitic to humans
no
Они наверное появились из-за того что один раз я случайно насыпала слишком много корма . Возможно из-за этого
I have no idea what this is saying, sorry.
My betta eats them. She loves rooting around in the rocks for them.
I had seen these worms earlier, but few days back I saw one of my fish had a reddish brown pectoral fin and it's base was like rotten and dripping some white cloudy stuff I got freaked out and I saw these worms in that spilling stuff I went crazy AF thinking what the hell never known thing and tried cleaning all my tanks 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
That sounds like fin rot. I am not really sure, but cleaning all of your tanks is probably a good thing to do.
Oof, hope your fishies survive this
@@ravenwhite2833 it had a small opening/hole like thing near the pectoral fin joined place and in 2,3 days it got closed. But still i worry if it's a contagious one and all my fish gets this and things go worse.
bruh same XD ma poor bebi survived with salt treatment 2 months ago, now another one is getting treated again n i see white worms thingy float all over the tank that i separated him. In one video, she said it can bite ur fish n causes disease, im not sure if those worms come out of him cuz there're no worms before i put him in. I saw ma fish ate the worms too, the worms here are kinda red n some white.. Did u get rid of the worms now? how ur bebi now?
@@seraktepykann7369 my fish stopped dropping/letting white worms, but they all died later on. It's like the pectoral fin base was rotten and small/tiny worms dropped one after another for some time and the wound area was healed after few weeks. Best thing is to remove/dispose all fish and start the tank again after bleaching everything to be sure it's safe.
Water changes and adjustments to feeding.
Problem solved. A few detritus worms are a sign of aquarium biome health.
Video starts at 4:00
That is sad looking betta
I am very lost as to when the betta was shown in this video. I just skimmed through the video, and I do not think the betta was ever on screen. When do you see the betta?
@@DIYReptiles wait so you’re telling me in the beginning that’s not a beta? No hate to me it looks wonderful
@@Xonshi you are right. I must of skipped over it. I have so many videos. I definitely do not remember all of them. Yeah, it did well in the large community tank.
Bake it
Aren't they just free fish food
Basically, yeah.
@@DIYReptiles any dangers if they came from the wild?
@@jackleo4435 I am not really sure. If you caught fish from the wild, there are probably pathogens and parasites you may have introduced to your tank. If maybe you added wood or rocks from a local stream, it is possible that you introduced pathogens and parasites to your tank. So the answer is it is not really any different if they were wild, but just as they were introduced from the wild, many other things much more dangerous may have also been introduced.
No eggs are safe in a tank fish eat them to 😹😹
I cant play your vid lol
That is very strange. I am not sure what to tell you. Thank you for the comment at least, and I am sorry you could not view the video.
@@DIYReptiles yes wierd:( did u find away to kill this worms i heve many detritus worm in my tank to :(
@@Tooadie well, in the video I talk about how they are essentially harmless. Basically, to prevent a population bloom, you need to start feeding the tank less. The population bloom is caused by an overload of biomaterial like food and detritus.
@@DIYReptiles okey i will try to feed less and se if it works:)
Keep the population down with guppies and small fish they will eat it.
Get to the point
You talk toooooooo damn much. Just a lot of bla bla bla. Get to the point already.
hey man do you have a email? can i ask you something about them?