Little white worm in my tank!

[janeofwaves]

Hey, hoping someone can help me out here. I've looked at some disease info but couldn't find what I was looking for.

I have a 20 gallon freshwater that currently is the home of a single panda cory. I have real plants and too many snails (but that's another story). I did a water change today, the previous water change was a month ago.

Today after changing the water I saw a very thin ~1cm long white worm swimming (it took me a few minutes to be sure it was swimming) in the tank. We fished it out, but where there's one... What is it and is it going to cause me problems?

To give you some background I had three panda corys die in this tank the fall. I noticed that their eyes were white, but that's about all that was visibly wrong. This guy is the sole survivor and frankly I'm half afraid to add new fish.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[SkarloeysMom]

Planaria probably...I have them too in my betta tanks. I think they are harmless. I've read that you can get rid of them by lots of gravel vacuuming and adding some aquarium salt but that hasn't helped my tanks so far.

[cocoa_pleco]

theyre just harmless worms.

Get about 5 more corys. corys hate being alone and shoal in groups of 4 or more

[janeofwaves]

Thanks, I would never have thought that it was something relatively harmless. . I found this page about getting rid of planaria (http://www.aquariumfish.net/information/having_trouble_p2.htm). It looks pretty intensive but I might give it a try when I get the chance. For now I'll be more regular with the water changing and gravel washing.

EDIT: I know I need more corys, I'll be getting him some buddies soon :)

[kldrake]

Thanks, I would never have thought that it was something relatively harmless. . I found this page about getting rid of planaria (http://www.aquariumfish.net/information/having_trouble_p2.htm). It looks pretty intensive but I might give it a try when I get the chance. For now I'll be more regular with the water changing and gravel washing.

EDIT: I know I need more corys, I'll be getting him some buddies soon :)


hi! i also had those little white worms in my freshwater tank, i was super worried too because my fish were dying aswell- i just obsessively vacuumed my tank and changed my water (as much as i could do without screwing with it too much) and it seems to have cleared itself up-fingers crossed! however this did take me a few months! goodluck!