General Care Discussion :: Tank Infested With Translucent Worms

[macmcgrew]

Our slider's (two of them, about three months old I think) tank is infested with translucent little wormy things. I thought it might have been cat hair, but he has never been near their tank. I got some of these things in a small cup to make sure it wasn't just the water flow moving them. They are definitely alive and mobile.

Can't find anything online about this or here in the forums. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I can change the water, but I'm sure that won't kill all of them or help my turtles if they've ingested some, which I'm sure they have.

[flutterby]

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3186&highlight=worms

This thread should help you.

[Boogerbutt02]

I have had this problem and it was do to the pellets.... Are your Turtle's eating all of their pellets? Or are the pellets disolving in the water?

[macmcgrew]

They usually eat everything, but there were a couple of times where I wasn't the one to feed them in the morning so I'm not sure.

There's quite a bit of black growth on some of their rocks.

I also discovered one of my filters was pumping a litttle too hard and spilling back down the intake side.

Guess I'll clean the tank and watch the food intake.

[CountryGirl68]

You may have planaria worms in the tank. They aren't harmful but can be annoying when they take over the tank. It happened to me once with my fish tank. Turns out, my hubby was overfeeding the fish and the fish waste and uneaten food made these worms appear.

Although generally harmless, planaria worms can get into the gills of fish and cause irritation, which would mean they can do the same with turtles. To get rid of them, the best thing to do is give the filter, tank decorations and the tank itself a good cleaning, using very hot water. You can even use a diluted bleach solution when cleaning the tank and decorations. Then be sure to always take out any leftover food or turtle poop that the filter isn't getting. That will avoid the worms from coming back.

[macmcgrew]

Thanks for all the advice.

Sorry to bother you about something that's already been discussed here. All my searches came up with talk about worms as food.

If anyone's interested I'll post results of my cleanup efforts.

[SpotsMama]

Yes please post your results.

[macmcgrew]

The kids are doing well. I put them in a holding tank and added a ton of bleach to their tank and let it sit and filter through all day. It was a strange reddish-brown color by the time I dumped it and cleaned everything.

The water is clear as day now. It was a little foamy (thought that was strange) for a couple days, but normal now.

Man they grow fast. I'm glad this wasn't a life-threatening thing.

On a related note, what type/brand of filter do you folks use? I'm only using a couple of basic charcoal filters now, but I know that's not going to be enough once these guys start eating more than they do now.

[missibsu]

what size tank are you planning a filter for? If it's anything over 50 gallons, I prefer the xp3. I had an older model fluval previously and it had some issues, plus is was a pain to clean. Fluval has done some changes since then, that I can't comment on. xp3 is easy to clean, and quick, and it keeps the water clean in a 75 gallon with two turts.

[macmcgrew]

Right now it looks like they'll be going into the 20 gallon that we have fish in. Most of the fish will be going back to school (we were summer-sitting) soon, and we've talked about trading spaces so to speak.

Thanks for the advice.

[missibsu]

rena does make just the xp and xp2 models as well, I don't know how many gallons they are rated for, but it would be worth looking into.