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Killer Worms?
This has been brought up several times before, this time with a new twist,
at least for me.
A long time ago I wrote about some tiny white worms that live along the
top waterline of my tank. Smaller in diameter than a hair , up to a quarter
of an inch long but usually shorter ,but quite visible in a test
tube...pointed head and tail....swimming snakelike .They never caused any
harm and it seems several other listers have them also, no problems. I think
they were described as unidentifiable , harmless and common .
A couple months ago, I removed a floating feeding corral from the tank to
clean. This is one of those blue square things that help you place feed
into the tank without it all going down your overflow. It floats on top and
so the worms bred there at the waterline. When I removed it hundreds of
worms swam down and away from the corral and the fish, being fish, gobbled
them up with glee. I never had a problem with them so I was glad they were
of some use afterall.
Now this may not be connected in anyway to the above but....I`ve since lost
63 fish . Many died within 2-3 days after the worm incident, the rest took
longer...up to 2 weeks. They would have a bloody spot behind the gills on
the body or on the belly. No worms were found inside on post mortem. I tried
a parisitic medication , and that slowed the deaths down quite a bit. Now
it`s finally stopped but my fish community has been nearly decimated in the
process . The plants look kinda naked without the fish. Many water changes
later , scrubbing of the waterline area , I`m starting to add some fish back
in. Among many other types I had some beautiful German Rams .
I may have misread the situation and the deaths had nothing to do with
the worms, I think not. My water chemistry was normal throughout.
Sorry for the long post . If you have these worms try to eradicate them if
possible .
DT