White worm type things!

[priesty]

Just got home to find lots of tiny white worm type things on the inside of my tank!

What are they/where did they come from!?

Should I remove my axies and clean the whole tank???

The photo has magnified them but there are loads, there about 0.5-1mm mm thickness and about 5+mm long

Help!!!

 

[Kaysie]

Planaria. They come from having uneaten food/waste in the tank. You can suck 'em out with a turkey baster, or you can leave them in there. They're not dangerous, just unsightly. As a side note: they're terribly interesting animals. You can cut them in half and develop two new planaria. If you train one to go through a maze, and cut it in half, both new planaria know how to navigate the maze. They're a-maze-ing. Harhar.

To prevent them, try doing water changes a little more, or vacuuming your substrate a little more thoroughly.

 

[priesty]

Your right, that is amazing, how world you even train it!??

If it's from un eaten food I'm guessing it came from a worm which some how managed to get underneath my gravel. That was about a week ago....

Ive also just spotted a hatchling in my main tank, maybe he will eat them before he probably gets eaten

 

[blackdog]

If extra cleaning does not rid you of the planaria, you can use a product called (funnily enough) "no planaria"

I've used it before because i had cherry shrimp in the axie tank, and although the planaria dont bother the axies, they kill shrimp apparently.

No Planaria is a betel nut extract, and after lots of research and questions on forums, i dosed my axie tank with it, small doses at first (to make sure there were no ill effects) then increasing to the full dose. It went fine.

I have heard that planaria can annoy the axies if the get in their gills, but i think it's annoying rather than harmful, maybe wathc for axie scratching his gills, otherwise just increase the cleaning.

Who in the world thinks to themselves - "Self, today i think i'll teach a planaria worm to navigate a maze, then cut it in half and see if they both can do the same...." ????

Bren