The Puffer Forum

Hello,

I hope you can help, we have just returned from a couple of days break during which time a trusted friend has come in and fed our 2 SAP (snails, freeze dried crill and frozen bloodworm). We are sure that they followed our instructions.

Anyway, upon inspecting our tank we noticed that the glass on 3 sides had what apeared to be oxygen bubbles (tiny), however when we took a closer look some of these are white only slightly bigger than a pin-head, appear to have tiny tails and are both swimming about but mostly crawling on the glass.

We are alarmed, but our fish seem absolutely fine and have been so since we got them on the 25th April.

Does anyone know what this could be or could offer any emergency advice? There are at least 200 of these little creatures that we can see, they seem to like it best on the glass but are also on our themometer and filter!! We're convinced they were not there a couple of days ago as we check our tank everyday.

My other half has an interesting theory that these may be the result of freezed dried crill eggs. (my nephew kept triops(which are like some sort of prehistoric shrimp) and these started off hatching and looking very similar until they grew, although the eggs were like dark pods which i cannot see in our case) - see link.
http://mytriops.com/

Can anyone please help as we are really worried this is going to harm our puffers!

Thanks in advance

Sounds like planaria. If so, they are harmless and are from overfeeding. To get rid of them, cut back on how much is fed.
Do an internet search on planaria and see if that's what you see.

EDIT:
http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/ ... ite_worms/

It's normal to get these worm like things in a tank that has been over fed. I can't remember excatly what they are called. It's not a danger to your fish, just an eye sore to you. A good couple of tank cleanings, cut back on food and they will go away.

Phew! I think.

We have both very thin worm like ones (only a few), but then lots of tiny tiny white pin like creatures that also look like they are 'crawling', i suppose these could be baby versions.....?

Just over worried probably.

We will obviously cut back on the feeding and try a few water changes to address the balance, i just did some quick reasearch and some suggest that buying a pleco or similar is the best and only way to fully rid the tank....

nah, You don't need a pleco. just a water change/gravel cleaning and less food

Yep, less food, vaccuum up the uneaten stuff in the water, and they'll die off.