CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

There are small white worms on the walls of my oscar's aquarium and I do not know what else to do to get rid of them.
Any suggestions????

I received an email indicating it might be planaria. I checked their site and the solution was to use a piece of meat on a wrap and place in water, where the worms will get attached to the meat and it be done. Is this the only way?

If they're only planaria they're not a big problem just clean the glass and do a good gravel vac. Might want to use a gravel vac, a little more often too

You can do add a some salt to speed things along, and just do as stilllearnin said, water changes, gravel siphonings etc....

So, do I understand that this small worms are not harmful to my oscar? And that there is no cure for this, or ways to get rid of them permanently?

Please advise. Thanks

Joe, if salt might be an accurate solution to my problem, is there an adecuated amount of salt per gallon of water????

Thanks,

Olga

Mmmmm, My Paradise fish would love to help you out, but i'm sure your O would view him as food. :dont:

You can try 1 tablespoon of salt for every 5gallons of water, don't add too much though. Also, try not to overfeed so that you have leftover food that sinks into your gravel. Many of us keep oscars in bare tanks....also remember that salt doesn't evaporate but stays behind so don't add more salt later when water level has gone down/evaporated etc....some small fish may even eat planaria, and yea they won't kill your fish so don't worry about that ...don't overfeed, keep the tank clean and especially the gravel

Joe, thanls so much I will try the salt. I only have an undergravel and the gravel on the tank. And as far as eating habits, I hand feed my oscar, of course with clean hands to prevent germs.

I read about Paradise fish that eat planaria, but I think that oscar might eat them. Not much info on this area. I saw them at store, but they are not to big and I'm affraid they might not last too long. Thanks again, I do appreciate you taking time to provide this information. Thank you so very much.

You're welcome, glad you decided to post it. I got your emails but I prefer to answer questions on here so others can benefit and also so you get more input from different people. Not sure what you meant by you only have "an undergravel and gravel"...do you mean you don't have any filter on the tank other than the undergravel filter? I think most of us here don't like those kind of filters Oscar tanks need 'real' filtration systems like magnum 350g/h and others of the same caliber....the more water cycled per hour the better.

Sorry about the misunderstanding. I do have an undergravel filter, but I also have a big filter on the tank like ya'll have. Now, do I undestand right, you do not use undergravel on your tanks? I thought this filter was good to create a bacteria that destroys the fesses and help keep the tank cleaner. Was I misleaded on this issue? I guess I should have talk to you for the important details on how to set everything for OSCAR. So, the best way to get my tank in best condition is without the undergravel, correct? I have vacation coming, I guess I have work to do. Thanks Joe.
Olga

Yeah, when it comes to keeping larger cichlids undergravel filters aren't very sufficient. Especially if your oscars like to dig, which most of them do. Mine don't but I still don't use the UGF because a lot of the poop gets stuck in the filter.

Thank you Dr. Octagon. I have always used UGF through my life in fish-land and never has any issues with it. Do you think that this might be one of the reasons I have this little white worms?

I've had the oscars here for about 4 yrs now and never ever had this worms before. Not with the oscars or any of my other tanks. So is this something new, since I haven't change anything in their every day routines.

Yea, I think could be why you have the worms, it usually takes more effort to keep the tank clean with gravel because oscars are such pigs....eat too much and make a mess. In a bare tank we easily siphon out any debris etc...all the siphoning ends up translating into more frequent water change. You can keep your gravel but you need to clean it more often to get rid of uneaten food and waste collecting in the gravel.