Urgent Care :: Worms is B's tank?

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Post Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 2:43 am   Worms is B's tank?

I noticed today a bunch of tiny little white/transparent-ish things, about one or two centimeters long, in the sponge of Beelzebub's filter. There are about four or five floating around the water, but otherwise they are ONLY in the filter sponge, not sticking to the walls or the floor or his basking dock. I shut the filter off for a couple of minutes to see if it was just weird dirt and the force of the filtration was making them look like worms or if they move on their own, and most of them do. I've been researching the types of infestations that can occur in an aquarium, but none of the descriptions match what I see.

I cleaned the tank yesterday completely. I scrubbed EVERYTHING, repeatedly. I even took the filter apart to scrub each piece separately, and I used a power washer to rinse everything. B is acting normally (in fact he's finally warmed up to me after a month!), and there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with his skin or shell.

What ARE these things?!
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AlexandraG
 
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Post Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 7:49 am   Re: Worms is B's tank?

It is possibly your turtles left over. Do you have live fish in there?
Turtles:
Dexter (RES)
Shelby (RES - gone and I feel really really bad).
Miracle (Box Turtle - Given to me after Shelby left us).
Orion (Mississippi Map Turtle).
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AlexisAwesome
 
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Post Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 10:50 am   Re: Worms is B's tank?

Pretty common hitchhiker that often makes it's way into tanks from fish, plants, rocks, etc. They are harmless but unsightly. Their population booms when your feeding a little too much or lax with enough water changes.

To reduce their number try feeding in a separate container.

The only way to get rid of them is to complete break everything down and clean it with diluted bleach. You'll also need to replace all the media in your filter.
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devilduck
 
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Post Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 7:30 pm   Re: Worms is B's tank?

I don't have any fish in the tank, and I have yet to try giving him live (or recently alive) food. I had some rocks on the bottom of the tank for the first two weeks but they were too difficult to clean so I left them out and there's currently nothing in there but the filter and his basking dock.
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Post Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:53 pm   Re: Worms is B's tank?

Are you sure those things are alive?
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steve
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Post Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:24 pm   Re: Worms is B's tank?

Positive. They were wiggling around and moving into and out of the sponge. I watched one crawl across the filter.
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 6:20 pm   Re: Worms is B's tank?

Would those worms apply to any of the hitchhikers found here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=25780
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steve
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Post Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2013 5:38 pm   Re: Worms is B's tank?

Ahhhh. Yup. Misc "wormy things". I guess I was looking in the wrong place. My apologies. Thank you so much!
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Post Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2013 4:31 am   Re: Worms is B's tank?

Were you able to clear them out?
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steve
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