White worms in New Shrimp Tank

[stowcenter93]

Hi all!

This is a new 10 gallon shrimp tank with 9 brand new shrimp in it. It has been up and running for maybe 2 weeks now. 

The other day I noticed a ton of these worms all over the glass. Now, my first fear was planeria, but I didnt want to overreact and start treating something without actually seeing if it was a problem. I thought MAYBE detritus worms, but they are wriggling in the water like I've seen them do.

All the plants are CO-OP and the shrimp are flip aquatics. I have done no quarantine or meds because I genuinely forget. Shrimp came a day earlier than expected, spent time acclimating, had a covid issue come up... messy weekend. But it's a brand new tank, so I wasnt concerned.

So I'm trying to ID these. But I can not for the life of me get a good photo with my camera. Attached are the best I could do tonight. 

Can I get some guidance as far as: ID, monitoring moving forward, and treatment of necessary? I'm new to keeping shrimp, and just dont want to have potential harm to the fry. 

Appreciate all the help!

[Marnol D]

Can you tell if the head is spade shaped (triangular)? Also if you poke at it with tweezers does it curl up and try to get away?  

[stowcenter93]

8 hours ago, Marnol D said:

Can you tell if the head is spade shaped (triangular)? Also if you poke at it with tweezers does it curl up and try to get away?  

It's hard to tell. I thought I could see the eye spots but I'm much less than certain on both of those markings.

They are very tiny right now, some no bigger than a few millimeters. I'd say at most, ~ 1 cm. 

I'll try the tweezer test after work.

[T.H. Fishkeeping]

I get these in a lot of my new tanks. after several months they tend to go away.

[FishDex]

Having a similar issue in my newer QT tank. Have you reached any conclusions?

[Tedrock]

Let me ask how often are you feeding the shrimp?  I ask this because I have made this mistake time and time again like an Italian grandmother. Mangia! Mangia!  I want my Shrimp to be happy and healthy so I fed them daily.  These worms whatever they are multiple when too much food is present, even if we can't see it.  Since it is a shrimp tank vacuuming is a problem.  Suggestions for you include -

1.  Stop feeding and algae - shrimp will feed off the plants for a while.

2.  Maybe vacuum the substrate - I would look for videos on this to avoid losing the baby shrimp.

3.  Last resort a dewormer - I use No-Planeria or you can you Panacur c

There are tons of videos on youtube that taught me.

I suggest this one.

I hope this helps,

Tedrock

[stowcenter93]

I have not. It's still really hard to tell. I'm just going to continue monitoring them and see if they give more identification clues. They seem to have reduced in population over the past week.

[stowcenter93]

On 12/11/2020 at 1:47 PM, Tedrock said:

Let me ask how often are you feeding the shrimp?  I ask this because I have made this mistake time and time again like an Italian grandmother. Mangia! Mangia!  I want my Shrimp to be happy and healthy so I fed them daily.  These worms whatever they are multiple when too much food is present, even if we can't see it.  Since it is a shrimp tank vacuuming is a problem.  Suggestions for you include -

1.  Stop feeding and algae - shrimp will feed off the plants for a while.

2.  Maybe vacuum the substrate - I would look for videos on this to avoid losing the baby shrimp.

3.  Last resort a dewormer - I use No-Planeria or you can you Panacur c

There are tons of videos on youtube that taught me.

I suggest this one.

I hope this helps,

Tedrock

Yep, that's my idea. Reduced feeding. Judt gonna use a very very small amount of rapashy on occasion, let them graze for an hour or so and pull it.

Population of worms seems to be dropping. 

[Steph’s Fish and Plants]

I had this happen in a shrimp tank too a few years ago. It never caused any harm to the shrimp that I noticed, I went from 4 cherry shrimp to 30 in just a few months. I believe them to be detritus worms based on what I was told at the time. As others above have said, cut back on feedings and let the shrimp outcompete them as far as food goes. A good gravel vac won’t hurt either.

[PotatoFish]

I had planaria in a tank I designated for cherry shrimp, and it freaked me out at first when I started reading about how bad planaria were for shrimp. 

The scientist in me went, "Let's see how it goes anyway!" Then, after 2 months, there were lots of shrimplets and a few fewer planaria. I then introduced a couple guppy fry into the tank, and the planaria (and visible detritus worms) disappeared faster than food in front of a goldfish.

[Taco Playz]

Yes, I heard planaria will kill shrimp so I would try gravel vaccume. Yes, any type of livebearer should get the job done if you have any livebearer fry I would do the job. They are very annoying though i know I had them in my 10 gallon tank and then for some reason they magically dissapeared 😂