The Puffer Forum

My snail farm has about 20 good sized Ramshorns in it, and almost every one of them have little tiny white worms on their bodies, lots of them.
I am assuming they are some kind of parasite that I dont want. And definitely dont want to feed to my puffers.

Does anyone have an idea what kind of parasite these little things are? And what should I use to get rid of them?

Thanks a lot!

I would guess that they are planaria and generally not a real problem, however they thrive in dirty water as they feed off excess food and poop so either the tank needs a few more regular water changes or you are feeding the snails too much. I would wait for them to disappear before you feed them to your fish though.

Where on the snail are the white worms attached? Can you provide a photo?

Sorry about that, I thought I had said that they were just on the body of the snail, not on the shell. I have been keeping the water very clean with water changes also.

From what I was told at my LPC, which I'm not the fondest of, anything that I treat them with is going to affect the snails as well, since they are both inverts.
So I am thinking that if these are some kind of problem parasite, than I am probably going to put the snails in my pond, and just hope that the eggs that they have already placed all over the tank grow to not have little white worms all over them, and could then use to feed.

I do not have a heater in the tank, it is just at room temp. Would adding some heat to the water help at all?

But if anyone has any ideas for me, they would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Eww... that's disgusting!

I know... It's gross. I was not very happy when I got them. The pictures dont really do them justice either, they are all up inside the shells and everything. I feel bad for the little snails. I'm sure it can't be too fun to have nasty little worms all over you.

They aren't all covered quite as bad as some of the others, but I just think I need to get the snail outta that tank and let the eggs hopefully start a clean colony. Does anyone know if this is going to be a fruitful way to go?

You might try giving them a dip in prazi, might kill the worms off... not sure what it would do to the snails tho.

Hey guys! I have seen articles about this subject around fish forums...

We don't have to be worried about it since these worms naturally appears in a tank which shows some signs of organics compounds. The aquarium ecosystem is not made of just substrate, water, plants and filtration... you can find a variety of free-life organisms (they aren't parasites) inside of this kind of system such as nematoids, annelids, bacteria, fungus, algae. A lot of organisms that live for the most part of time, exclusively or not, of free organic matters.

Probably these worms grows pretty fast in a snail breeding tank because the water quality is not so pristine even though we try to keep it, normally we don't get the breeding tank full cycled to breed them. So, relax and you CAN use these snails to feed your puffer. I have a great number of them in my snail breeding tank also and I have noticed them in planted tanks as well, they AREN'T harmful, ok?

So I should just let them be?

I dont know, they just look so bad. I think I might at least let them drop some more eggs, then maybe put them in another little tank or something and try to get a clean litter.

I am still definitely open to suggestion though!

There are three digenetic flukes, Clinoseomum, Posthodiplostomum, and Diplostomum that infect fish as yellow grub, black spot, and eye fluke respectively. All three are parasites that infect snails as part of their life cycle. To break the infection cycle which goes fish eating birds --> droppings--> snails --> free swimming larvae --> fish, it is recommended that you destroy all snails.

If these snails came from somewhere where fish-eating birds exist you may introduce a problem into your aquarium or pond. If there were no fish-eating birds, there may be other diseases caused by the snail parasites.

ref. Manual of Fish Health, Andrews, Exell & Carrington, 2003

Are these worms presented onto the glass? Are they just attached to the snails? If you may see them living on other surfaces you don't have to worry, they are free-life organisms, not parasites! One exemple to clarify it, are remoras. They are fish that live attached with sharks, they are not parasites, just living this way to take the benefit of the sharks.

We may not consider all uncommon/strange organisms as a threat.

No, they are only on the snail itself, not roaming around the tank. I THINK I did see one on one of the egg bundles, but I didnt see any movement (it was probably eating an egg!) so I couldn't confirm for sure that it was a worm and not snail waste.

This is great, my LFS doesn't know anything compared to the knowledge that I get here.

Thanks for the insight everyone.

Local fish stores only get information passed by word of mouth from one person to another... on a forum, dozens of people keeping the same animals can compare expereinces and synthesize information and get a much better overall idea of what works best.

I would absolutely not feed those snails to your fish. A LOT of nasty parasites use mollusks as an intermediate host... including many that can infect fish as well as humans. Difficult to ID them without proper equipment.
Destroy them, disinfect the tank and start over.

PP what do you think the white worms are?