# Tiny Worm-like Creatures On Glass and Brown Sludge?



## LloydTheSnail (Jan 8, 2011)

I have been operating a freshwater tank for about 3 months now. It is 35 litres (which is about 9.2 gallons) and is filtered. It is home to two goldfish-like fish, and one beautiful Golden Apple Snail. 

The tank got really dirty recently, I left it too long. It grew algae all over the sides, some of it green and several millimetres long so you could see it move in the water. I gave it a half water change, cleaned the sides thoroughly, and cleaned the filter. I went to clean the filter media. Inside, the biggest part of media is a sort of thick wool-ish piece of material wrapped around a bag of charcoal. The material was dotted in really dark brown spots, it was strange and looked like something nasty might be in there. Furthermore, the whole of the filter media was filled with a horrible thick brown sludge that I've never witnessed in my filter before. It took ages to get rid of it and it was rather unpleasant. I decided that, because the filter material was in such a strange and poor state, I'd wash it with normal water-- I took the risk of setting back the bacteria cycle in the filter media. I put the tank back together, added some anti-algae mixture, water ager, and a lil' bit of mixture that helps the bacteria cycle in the tank. 

My fish and snail went off their food directly after. I assumed perhaps it could have been nitrate poisoning due to the harsh measures I took on the filter media. I feed them twice a day, morning and night. I also noticed along the glass of the tank were tiny tiny patterns of faint marks everywhere. Looked like a mark of where the algae once was. I ignored it.
The fish were very reluctant to eat, the snail would eat one or two bits of the fish food occasionally and then just sleep for two days in the same place. Recently they got moving again, I think the tank has sorted itself out. My snail is active and eating, and my fish are still a bit off their food but appear to be returning to their normal diet. However last night, a full week after I cleaned the tank, I was watching my snail. He was moving around, eating, it was nice to see him stretch his body out and scavenge in the gravel once more. There were these small white marks on the glass. I wondered if it was algae that had perhaps died or failed to grow and took on a bleached color. But suddenly I noticed it was moving.

I then realized, on all four sides of the glass, really tiny little worm like creatures were walking around. About 50 to 100 could have been dotted around the tanks sides. They are very very tiny, perhaps only 1 millimetre in length. They swim in straight lines and sometimes zig-zag downwards. I've seen them sort of "curl" up too occasionally. Its quite a creepy thing, I hate the idea my poor snail is walking along glass filled with horrible little worms. They look transparent, but take on a white colour because of this. Many of the worms stay towards the top of the waterline, and some try to go above the water line but end up drying out 1cm above it.

I hate the idea of these things, I don't much lavish the idea of sticking my hands into a tub full of weird worms either when cleaning it. I've seen a few proposals of what these might be-- Planaria was suggested. 

I have not cleaned my gravel since creating the tank, apart from when I accidentally shift some with my hand. I heard that organic matter build up below the gravel may have been the cause of these. I also note that these creatures appeared after my fish refused to eat their food, which may have provided another way for the creatures to live. I've also seen that the best way to combat is to clean the gravel and do a water change, trying to starve the creatures or remove them. 

Here are my questions:

*What are these creatures? What can I do to get rid of them quickly? I would like an opinion regarding my case and not other peoples tanks so I can get a more accurate diagnoses.

What was the horrible brown build up and spotted pattern that ravaged the fish tank filter and the main piece of material?

Do these pose danger to my snail? I heard they shouldn't, but my snail has walked over the worms before and 'flinched' suddenly which concerns me. My snail is priority 101. *

Thank you for reading this big detailed wall. :3


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## pringleringel (Apr 3, 2011)

Don't know, all I can say is GROSS. 

I think the filter sludge is pretty normal though. You should just rinse it off in tank water.


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## LloydTheSnail (Jan 8, 2011)

Its quite hard to clean the sludge, its quite thick and sticks to the media really hard. :c

As for the worm things, its really strange. They all seem to have gone to the surface now, because usually food floats there, but some are dying. I dunno if I should just wipe them off and throw them in the bin and hope thats that. :I


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## automatic-hydromatic (Oct 18, 2010)

back YEARS ago before I had any real knowledge on aquariums, I had a 10 gallon with a few Bala Sharks in it, and after a few months I started noticing little worm-like things crawling near the surface level of the water on the tank sides too... but I was like 10 years old at the time, and I had a microscope, and I use to scrape them off and look at them magnified about 100x's, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world! how dorky is that  lol

but to this day I still couldn't tell you what they were. never seemed to harm the fish in any way


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

The worms are planeria. They eat the junk in the gravel bed. You should be changing the water about 25% every week, vaccum the gravel once, turn your lighting periods down and just feed once a day or twice if you do it lightly. The brown stuff is a form of algae i believe. If its on your filters and they're replacable, just replace them. Be sure to do that either a week before or a week after you vaccum the gravel. You dont want to remove too much of the bioload all at once. For the stuff on the glass, just scrape it off before the water change. Once all your stuff gets good again, the planeria will start to die off from the shortage of food. Be sure to get at least some test strips to see if you have nitrates in the tank. If you have any, then keep changing the water. Any as in, if you can tell if its above 20ppm. Also, if you dont have any already, adding plants will help keep the nitrates lower and keep your tank parameters better. You have dont some of this already but its best to do it often. Vaccum about once a month and keep up the water changes. On a small tank without plants, this is a vital thing. Since you have goldies, you may not be able to have plants. but you can try.


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## LloydTheSnail (Jan 8, 2011)

I'll invest in a gravel vacuum definitely.

I've been cleaning it about once every two weeks, but I'll do it more often. As for plants, I think my snail would try to eat the plant. :3


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

apple snails i think eat plants.. others dont i.e. ramshorn, nerite, and uhh.. that other one.. my brain just failed. lol


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## LloydTheSnail (Jan 8, 2011)

Yeah he's definitely an apple snail.

I have a fake plant in the tank, it was sad because when I got him he tried twice to eat it. c:


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