I have worms in my 20 gallon shrimp tank. Theres some SAE, and Octos, and 2 guppies. They look like slugy types of worms that crawls on the wood and gravel, not my fish or shrimps that i can see. I'm wonderin if these worms will harm my shrimps (or fish, but I'm more concerned for my shrimps) Also, how do i get rid of them without hurting my shrimps and plants? (I have cherries, amano,red nose, and green/blue algae shrimps.)
blenny wrote:Could it be planarian? Does it has look like leech?
From her description I think you are right. They sound like they are planaria. Either way both nematodes and planaria are totally harmless. I've had both in my tanks before.
NO...just keep your shrimp well-fed. Don't starve them to see if they will eat the planaria. The red claw eat them for sure, though. Mine decimated all of my planaria from one of my tanks although I really did not mind the planaria.
We have planaria in lots of our shrimp tanks and leeches (they move differently from planaria) and what look like blackworms or tubifex worms--all spontaneously generated as far as I'm concerned since we didn't put any of those things in there). The planaria are kind of cute with their arrow heads and turn green when they get into the spirulina. Someone said you can feed them to your fish but I"m too lazy to try to pick planaria out of the shrimp tanks just to feed the fish.
While not recommending starvation, I feel that lots of people overfeed their shrimp. Many types of small shrimp are eating things that we don't even see and may not need a lot of direct feeding, particularly in a well established well-planted environment, especially with any accomanying fish that are already being fed.
An overfed and nutrient rich environment may contribute to worm outbreaks.
