The Puffer Forum

Okay, this is just weird and creepy. Glad I didn't see these things last night before bed or I would have had nightmares all night!

Out of nowhere, these weird, flatworm looking things showed up and are crawling all over my glass of ONE tank. They range from just under an inch to tiny, with most of them being about a half inch long and maybe a mm wide. With triangle shaped heads? There are lots of them, not just a few. I don't see any worms on the fish, just on the glass.

This is a bare bottomed tank, has been set up for several months. It houses my male pindu cichlid. There have only been two changes in the last few days.

The first, 2 days ago I fed them some thawed mysis shrimp. I also fed this to a few other tanks, none of which are showing these worm things.

The second change is that last night I moved the female in with him, since she was looking very eggy and flirting with him through the glass big time. I don't see how that could possibly trigger worms..?

Anyways, they are gross, and this has me worried because I harvest snails out of this tank to feed my puffer... and I put my hand in there! Eww!

I'm off to search for photos of tank parasites, etc, but if anyone knows what they are, let me know!

OOOOH creeepy stuff. Can't say I've had that before. Maybe its come in with the mysis but the other tanks perameteres aren't favourable conditions for the worms

planaria?

Definately not planaria, I'll get photos up in a minute or two.

Its much larger, darker in color. Someone suggested hydra, but I don't see any tentacles. Could be its just newly born and doesn't have them yet?

Okay, I'm moving this to the hospital section because it is now, unfortunately, puffer related.

I just put the female cichlid down. She had been hiding in the cave and I could see her tail moving, figured she was just protecting eggs (they were courting though the glass, so I put them together the night before to spawn).

I made her come out to make sure the male wasn't picking on her, and she was nearly dead. Breathing but unable to really move. Snails already chewing on her. Her anus looked "blown out", her body was full of pencil tip sized holes.

I think whatever these worms were, they chewed their way out of her, probably triggered by the spawning stress or something of the like.

I took a flashlight and looked at the male (they are black fish, I don't have lights on the tank so it was easy to miss), and his body looks okay but he has holes in his face, mainly on the jaw line.

Now, I have kept these two separate for months. Bought them from a local guy, and was waiting to get a tank set up for them to breed in. So they've had no contact with my other fish.

Except Bubba/Beetlejuice, the turgidus I got from Pufferpunk. I feel so horrible. Just recently, I decided it was safe, since they'd shown no problems for months, to harvest snails from their tanks to feed Bubba. After I found the holes on the female and male, I went to find Bub's with the flashlight. He has a few holes in his belly, looks like something chewed into (or out of!) him. He rarely comes out in good lighting, always hides in his cave or the plants, so I have no idea how long they've been on him.

So I really need to figure out what these things are and if there is a treatment. I'm guessing a type of nematode, but I didn't think they actually came out of the body!

This is bad guys, very bad. The photos I'm going to get up are not the best (current camera doesn't have a macro lens) but you can get a vague idea of the shape and size of these things.

Brownish color, moves like a slug, effortlessly on the glass.. body can stretch and contract from long and skinny to round but its not a travel thing, they just sort of glide along.

I don't see any tentacles, but if you look at their backs they almost seem to have two white "eyes" on the back of their pointed, triangle shaped head.

Guys, I really need to figure this out. I feel horrible, especially for my baby boy (Bubba), and also, I don't know if I should call the guy that I bought the fish from and tell him he has a problem on his hands or if he'll treat me like I caused it.. will probably have to wait until I get a positive ID...

Thinking of maybe sending the female out for an autopsy, they do that on fish right?

Okay, here's the photos. Had to upload them to Photobucket.

The snail is a medium sized ramshorn (maybe a half inch across?), to give you an idea of how large these nasties are.

DEFINITELY a planaria. They come in sizes over an inch long, typical aquarium type usually run 1/10 that size, but you can get any type.

You're kidding right?

Planaria, that I've seen, where small white worms that wiggled on the glass, not slid along gracefully.

And they didn't chew holes in my fish.

Worms that wiggle on the glass aren't planaria, if it doesn't glide, it's another kind of worm. The ones you are used to are probably a harmless roundworm, I have a type I call "spazworms" which are tiny and if forced into open water, spaz all over the place. They also make tiny tubes to live in.

I say planeria also.

Having seen the photos i was going to say Anchor Worms from the shape of the head...but im not totally sure as ive only ever seen anchor worms on fish not free swimming.

Planaria are usually white and tiny, they look well fed Planaria if thats what they are :/

Check these ones out!
http://www.tmbs.com/catalog/living.htm
You can buy 1/2" or larger ones on this page, just scroll down, the larger types are used in science classrooms a lot, just very uncommon in aquariums.

If you dont like them and dont want them, wipe them out with flubenol 15? have a look at the sticky at the top of this forum for info on it

They are planaria, without a doubt. I've ordered ones like those from Carolina Scientific, and worked with them in biology labs.

Paul's flubenol should do the trick. It is an antihelminthic and planaria are from the phylum Platyhelminthes, same as tapeworms, liver flukes, and all those other nasties. Planaria are from class Turbellaria, and Turbellarians are usually predatory rather than parasitic. They hunt down water fleas and other tiny prey. Some are scavengers, though, so maybe they are munching on your fish while they rest? They could have been attracted to your female cichlid's eggs, then to her because she was staying still most of the time. Same goes for your puff, since he is a lurker.

I'd recommend an immediate dose of flubenol or another antihelminthic as soon as possible. The fubenol will kill snails in your cichlid tank, though, so you may want to bait out as many as possible to avoid water quality problems from lots of rotting snails.

Also, DO NOT overlook the possibility that these planaria are not the cause. Parasites, bacteria, or a virus may have been introduced by your cichlids. Definitely get your female cichlid necropsied if at all possible, and watch the planaria and your other fish carefully.

Cichlids and holes in the face makes me think of what's called Holes disease in Norwegian. I think it's also called hexamita. That's most common on cichlids, and I don't think I've heard of it on puffers. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. I don't know that many with puffers anyway

BTW, your description will give me nightmares... That was just so disgusting!