White worms in gravel

[Guppy Guy]

I don’t know where to start. I hate my 10 gallon tank right now. After re-scraping it last fall, one thing after the next has gone wrong. Now there are these small white worms in the gravel. I don’t feed worms in my tanks, so these are not food. Does anyone know what these are?

Also, I want to start over with this tank, but the gravel is special to me. I have had the gravel in that tank since I was 5 and had a betta fish. Will I be able to salvage it? Thanks.

[Biotope Biologist]

Most likely detritus worms given the way they swim.

 

If you feel the need you could boil the gravel. Seems like the safest option. Some people also use dilute bleach but you would have to rinse pretty thoroughly after.

[Guppy Guy]

On 8/5/2022 at 12:01 PM, Biotope Biologist said:

Most likely detritus worms given the way they swim.

Where do they come from? I feel that there is no point trying to get rid of them if the source isn’t addressed.

[Katherine]

They can come in with live plants or in the bag with new fish. If you have a lot of them that means they have a lot of food available. You can try gravel vacing more or cutting down on how much you feed. They're harmless and some fish like to eat them.

[Brandon p]

The worms don’t concern me much, most fish eat them most tanks have them. The population is just kept low by fish. If you do want to redo the tank boil or use hydrogen peroxide. 

[Guppy Guy]

OK thanks. It is worth noting that the tank just won’t balance out after re-scaping, so now there is hair algae everywhere. Also, the plants keep dying and the fish population went from over 50 to  under 20 since then. With all the worms, is it possible that they are killing the fish?

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/5/2022 at 10:04 AM, Guppy Guy said:

Where do they come from? I feel that there is no point trying to get rid of them if the source isn’t addressed.

drop in oxygenation or flow becomes very slow in the tank, nitrates rise, leading to them taking off and consuming the waste.

[Katherine]

On 8/5/2022 at 12:55 PM, Guppy Guy said:

With all the worms, is it possible that they are killing the fish?

Not if they're actually detritus worms. Can you try to get a close up photo?

[Guppy Guy]

On 8/5/2022 at 4:36 PM, Katherine said:

Not if they're actually detritus worms. Can you try to get a close up photo?

I already cleaned most of the worms out, but I will do it again next week. I’ll get one then. I have already removed the fish just in case that is the issue. I have also decided that I will start over with that tank, as that is one of the many problems it has. 

[Goosedub]

How often do you water change? With 50 fish In a 10 gallon, that’s a lot of waste. That is Why you are noticing detritus worms

[Opie]

They seem to come out when I clean out my sump. If they stay in the display tank, I don’t feed for a week (give or take) either the fish eat them or they go back to the sump. I have never really figured out which.

I should probably clean my sump more often. LOL

[Guppy Guy]

On 8/5/2022 at 8:12 PM, Goosedub said:

How often do you water change? With 50 fish In a 10 gallon, that’s a lot of waste. That is Why you are noticing detritus worms

I usually do it about once every 2 weeks. Before I re-scraped it last fall, there were a TON of plants in there, so they managed water quality really well. Now there is only a few that won’t grow for some reason, so water quality isn’t as good.