Explosion of little white worms

[LumberZack]

I have a quarantine tank that killed all of my guppies (well they died at least). 
lots of meds from the quarantine 3 had gone in there to save them, but no luck. 
anyway, at least 1 90% change has happened since there have been no fish and I’ve just let it run in case the cycle had crashed. 
 

it been a couple of weeks and there have been only a few live plants in there. 
 

now there has been an explosion of worm things. 
could they be parasites that had been killing the fish and now have life cycled back to worm form?

would appreciate your thoughts before I nuke or trash everything within 10 feet of this tank 😜

thanks

 

 

Edited November 3, 2020 by LumberZack

[Daniel]

They are called detritus worms. They aren't parasitic on fish which is why you see so many now, they are breeding happily without the presence of fish. They are not harmful but some people don't like them for aesthetic reasons.

[Alesha]

Nooooooo...leave them in! 🙂 The reason you didn't see them before is because they are yummy in a fishy's tummy. 😆 Now that nothing is gobbling them up, they are happily reproducing. They aren't harmful, but are a good sign that your tank still has life in it. That's a good thing!

[cornelius85]

Well, I literally had thousands of them in my tank before I put in fish. They cleaned them up in two days.

[Ben_RF]

Sidenote, if you ever see a whole bunch free swimming with fish in the tank, then its a good sign parameters are off like Ammonia or Nitrite.

[Casual aquatics]

Just now, Ben_RF

Sidenote, if you ever see a whole bunch free swimming with fish in the tank, then its a good sign parameters are off like Ammonia or Nitrite.

Is this true?

[Ben_RF]

By this I mean a WHOLE bunch, not just a little bit.  Like it looks like an explosion of worms swimming.