Help! Little white worms suddenly crawling all over my glass!

[Theresa_M]

UPDATE - ok guys. I’m ok. After burying myself in all thing aquarium worms online - these do appear to be detritus. Would really really love a second opinion though! Hopefully you can access my video link to see them in action. 
 

What are these? Please help! I’ve got some very expensive fish in this tank. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MrMcvpB_QSKzd-cIs3CT7JKGF3J2pbA-/view?usp=drivesdk

These are stringy little white worms. They move fast and kind of inch around. There are all kinds of critters suddenly crawling all over my glass.

OMG, and now I’ve just seen something white dart across my eyes inside the water. Like something swimming and not a worm 😭
 

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by Theresa_M

[Aubrey]

It's hard to say exactly what kind of detritus worm, but yeah I'd say that's what it is. If you think they look gross with the naked eye, they only get creepier the closer you look. Here is some footage of one under a microscope.

 

[Philip]

It is very hard for me to see what you have pictured. It's my old eyes, not your photography skills. 

My first thought is it might be hydra. You can look it up and compare. 

[Colu]

Looks like detritus worms

[Maggie]

Yeah, you're going to see all kinds of little creatures. I don't know what fish you have but they'll probably find detritus worms a tasty snack. I know my rasboras grab them every time they see one. Hydra is the one thing that really sucks, as alot of fish won't eat them. If you feed live baby brine shrimp, the hydra will steal some and reproduce exponentially. People say certain gouramis love hydra, but I haven't heard any other ways to get rid of it other than chemical and that's always a stressor on fish. There are several Coop videos on controlling hydra. @Aubreyposts all kinds of neat and creepy stuff that's in most of our aquariums from her microscope. You learn not to worry so much about the harmless creatures.

Edited February 17, 2021 by Maggie

[tolstoy21]

I get those from time to time -- very small, glass-hugging, white worms -- usually in tanks that are cycling, that don't have big enough fish to eat them, or in shrimp tanks.

I had got a bunch slithering on the glass in a tank I spawned barbs in. Two weeks later, the barb fry are bigger, hungrier and no more worms.

I have yet to experience an issue because of these.

Edited February 17, 2021 by tolstoy21

[Theresa_M]

Thanks for the reassurances everyone! They definitely move kind of like inch worms and don’t slide along like earthworms. I read a planarian moves more like an earthworm. These don’t have any shape to them, just tiny straight lines. So I’m ruling out Hydra. And the other little thing I think I saw darting around is cyclops.

I’ve got a betta and a false zebra pleco in this tank. I’m just so worried they’re going to harm my pleco because they only seem to be on the glass and not in the substrate. I read that planaria just moves along the glass?? There’s so much conflicting information, it’s hard to know. Not so worried about Mr. Betta. I did see him bite at the glass a few times last night.  

The reason I’m so worried it’s planaria is because I saw a real worm in my shrimp tank on Monday. It looked like a black worm that had kinda bleached out - it was brownish. It startled me so much that I went crazy gravel vacuuming and cleaning. I sucked out multiple worms. Those also did not look like pictures of planaria I’ve seen. They were long but round and skinny - no pointed head. The tank used to house African Dwarf frogs and we feed those live black worms. The black worms were always falling into the substrate and getting lost. I wasn’t worried though because I knew the animals would find them eventually.

well, I also found a random dead cherry shrimp that day. A large seemingly healthy one. Since doing my research last night, that has me worried about planaria.

Anyway, back to Monday. Since I had already cleaned one tank, I have two more 10g stocked tanks, so I cleaned them all using the same siphon. I didn’t think anything of it because I truly felt like they were the black worms. One of the tanks I cleaned was betta and pleco tank. It wasn’t til the next morning that I started seeing clusters of white spots on the glass. But I thought they were just from the pleco - they’re kinda shaped like his mouth. He’s just a baby 1.5” - maybe less. But now, I think they’re egg clusters for these worms and I’m thinking I picked up something from the shrimp tank and transferred it to the betta tank. Uuuugggghhh! This is so maddening.  

Anyway, it’s only this tank that has cyclops and worms on the glass. I’ve never seen anything like anywhere else. I also have a 75 community tank and about every kind of worm eater you can imagine in there, lol. That could be why I’ve never seen anything.
 

this betta tank is the only one that I have driftwood in, so wondering if maybe it’s got something to do with that. I added the driftwood about two weeks ago. 
 

Edited February 17, 2021 by Theresa_M

[Andy's Fish Den]

1 hour ago, Theresa_M said:

  The reason I’m so worried it’s planaria is because I saw a real worm in my shrimp tank on Monday. It looked like a black worm that had kinda bleached out - it was brownish. It startled me so much that I went crazy gravel vacuuming and cleaning. I sucked out multiple worms. Those also did not look like pictures of planaria I’ve seen. They were long but round and skinny - no pointed head. The tank used to house African Dwarf frogs and we feed those live black worms. The black worms were always falling into the substrate and getting lost. I wasn’t worried though because I knew the animals would find them eventually.
 

What you found is more than likely a blackworm. Blackworms will make their way into the substrate of an aquarium and reproduce if the fish don't get them. I love to feed them to my corydoras because the worms get down in there and multiply, and then when one decides to poke its little head out, a catfish slurps it up and has a nice snack.