Planaria: How to Get Rid of White Worms in the Aquarium
Planaria
It can be an extremely upsetting feeling for the beginning aquarist…you’ve spent so much time researching your fish, setting up the aquarium properly and getting it up and running. The aquarium cycled well and looks beautiful, the fish are lively and in great health. One day, you turn on the light and notice filamentous white things on the sides of your aquarium. A closer inspection reveals that these aren’t just some weird algae, they’re actually thread-like white worms that are crawling up the sides of your aquarium.
First off, take a deep breath. This is a common problem. Your fish are not in imminent danger from the worms. Planaria outbreaks often occur due to overfeeding, too much excess food in the bottom of the aquarium provides an excellent environment for them to thrive. Improperly-cleaned aquariums in general can cause outbreaks, especially in carnivore tanks as their digestive systems tend to let a lot of nutrients pass through their bodies unabsorbed, making even more food available for the planaria.
Now for the bad news, while those little white worms won’t harm your fish (in fact, many fish love to eat them), the conditions that allowed them to thrive in your aquarium are potentially fatal if they’re not recognized and corrected. Excess food puts more ammonia into your aquarium system as it decomposes, which can cause deadly ammonia spikes. If the beneficial bacteria are sufficient to deal with the ammonia you will still see rising nitrate levels. While nitrates aren’t as dangerous as ammonia, it is still hazardous and must be corrected or it will eventually cause deaths.
To get rid of these worms, you have to remove their food source. Start with a thorough gravel vacuum and partial water change (30%-50% change) or, if preferred, stir the gravel on a daily basis until all the excess food and waste runs through your mechanical filtration. This should be accompanied by weekly partial water changes until all your parameters are within an acceptable range. The worms themselves can be removed if you really want them gone fast or if you’re trying to breed fish (they will eat fish eggs), though left alone the fish will probably eat them and the remainder will die of starvation as their food source is systematically removed from the aquarium.
While regular checks of the water parameters will help you identify problems before they become serious issues, I strongly recommend having a secondary precaution in place. Water maintenance products such as EcoBio-Block will go a long way toward keeping the parameters healthy and preventing ammonia spikes. EcoBio-Block keeps high levels of beneficial bacteria in the aquarium for up to two years, which can readily deal with these spikes. This product also provides essential minerals that the fish need to be healthy, ensuring they’re in peak condition to deal with any issues in the aquarium.
Planaria can be an unsightly problem. Luckily, they’re easy to deal with and it’s easy to correct the problems that caused them. If you’re new to fish keeping and don’t want to risk dealing with planaria or water quality issues, make sure you do your research on the care of your aquarium and its inhabitants as well as add in additional safeguards such as EcoBio-Block.
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February 13, 2009 at 4:45 PM
March 11, 2011 at 10:45 PMDaniel Moskalenko
I got those worms in my live plans!!! What do I do to get them out of the plans? I have a moss ball and its like a house for them!! They live there! Its crazy!!
#182
September 6, 2011 at 6:36 PMGrant
So my fish wont die even if it does ave the worms in its stomach because my fish is not floating anymore.
#260
October 4, 2011 at 5:34 PMJessica
Where did the little worms come from in the first place?
#266
October 7, 2011 at 2:50 PMAquarium Care
The planaria are hitch rides on your gravel, plants or possibly from decorations that have been passed down to you. They are too small to see, but when the conditions are good for them, they start to multiply.
#267 | @266 | Author
November 3, 2011 at 12:57 PMKevin
I used guppies they ate them like crazy if not fed much other food.
#275
November 26, 2011 at 10:39 AMTheresa
Actually, like a tape worm, heart worm or many other worms you may hear about when it comes to animals, these little worms actually will kill your fish if the outbreak goes unnoticed and untreated for too long.
#281
December 10, 2011 at 12:42 AMJackie Hartman
Dumb question #1? I have small cuts on my hands, if I stick them in the tank to clean it will the Planaria harm me?
#287
December 12, 2011 at 10:32 PMAquarium Care
It’s never a good idea to put your hands into standing water if you have cuts on them and even without cuts, it is recommended that you wash your hands right after immersing them in aquarium water.
There is always the possibility of getting an infection.
#288 | @287 | Author
December 30, 2011 at 12:18 PMAimee
I have noticed the little worm things in my tank and I’ve just sorted out a snail problem and now this. I’ve had tanks for years but haven’t had problems like this overlapping the worms freek me out alot is there a way of getting rid of them or any breed of fish that eat them.
#293
January 2, 2012 at 10:20 PMAquarium Care
You need to do a good gravel vacuum and water changes every week to keep the food source for pranoria at a minimum. And use EBB to keep good bacteria population high to avoid ammonia spikes.
Almost all fish will eat them and eventually you won’t have any more white worms.
#298 | @293 | Author
January 6, 2012 at 1:59 AMkatie
I have these and a snail problem, looks like im gonna b busy tomorrow…
#299
January 18, 2012 at 12:50 AMPrakash
Because of Over feeding (Un eaten food on the bottom of the tank), i have noticed the little white worms generated in my flowerhorn tank and I added more salt to it, Next day I changed the Complete water and Washed the Gravel. Problem seems to be resolved
#304