Small white worms on aquarium wall

[frogdog]

I suddenly see a bunch of small white worms on my aquarium glass. No ammonia or nitrite, nitrates are about 25ppm. I have been ghost feeding my tank trying to build up the bacteria colony in preparation for 8 galaxy rasboras to be added, but as the numbers show, it’s nothing crazy that the tank can’t handle. It’s a 10G.

[PineSong]

Those look like they might be planaria. Planaria can happen when there is excess food in a tank, and since your tank does not have fish yet, all the food is "excess". 

I have seen one or two planaria at a time in a couple of my tanks when I was feeding a lot due to having large numbers of fry. Because I'd seen a lot of photos like yours, I expected the planaria population to explode and I bought a product called "No Planaria" to eliminate them. However, I haven't used the product in my tanks because the population never appeared to increase.

I haven't kept galaxy rasboras so I am not sure whether they would eat those planaria or not. 

 

[rockfisher]

I don’t think it’s planaria. They have arrow shaped heads. They more like harmless detritus worms. They are harmless. The fish will likely pick at them and clean the glass. Almost every tank has them. People think they don’t because they stay in the substrate. Since you were ghost feeding they probably had lots of feed and with the fish they have less. With less food going to the substrate they are out looking for food. They with die back when they can’t eat and you won’t see them much. They good in the tank breaking down extra food and junk. It looks like you have live plants so that 25 of nitrates is fine. I keep mine near 50. 

[nabokovfan87]

It looks like some form of a flatworm. Detritus worms would be rounder, these look to be flat.

If you have shrimp in the tank, be careful. You can use something called no planaria to treat if you wish to remove them.

Further research required to get an ID, but I hope the above helps.

Something as simple as adding salt to the tank (1/2 cup per 10g) might be a good starting point to reduce the numbers.

This is a detritus worm I took a photo of swimming in the tank today.