Tiny white worms all over tank

[Fiona]

Hi all, first post :)
Have my first axolotl all set up for a little over a month now, had some ups and downs already (little guy or girl swallowed and luckily puked up some gravel the pet store owner assured me wouldn't be dangerous... grrrr) but seems pretty healthy and has a good appetite :)

Just noticed when I tured on the aquarium light (normally stays off) thousands of very very small fine wormy critters all over the inside walls and floor, about a millimeter long and as wide as a hair. Thought they might be some kinda fibrous stuff lining the tank but lo and behold, they wriggle purposefully around the place, 20 or so on every square inch of surface, seems absolutely infested in there.
I can't see any on the axolotl, but they're transparent or white and he/she's leucistic so difficult to tell...
Couldn't get a good photo sorry, anyone know based on my poor description what these little buggers might be and how to get rid of them?

[Johnny O. Farnen]

Sounds like a case of planaria or even oligochaetes to me. These little guys are really nothing to worry about.

Check this out:http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Tank_critters.shtml

[crazyfishlady]

Those are detritus worms and are signs that you may need a water change. They usually start showing up when there's overfeeding, large bio-loads, or underfiltration of the tank. They are harmless and can actually help clean the tank. If you would like to start removing them make some water changes. http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com...s-in-fish.html

[Fiona]

What a relief, thankyou both!
Was dreading having to empty tank and start cycling over if they were parasites or otherwise nasty.
Axie eats all that he's fed (apart from cookie monster style crumbs from shaking food around, which get vacuumed up), Water's clear and I thought it was spic and span, but upon closer inspection it wasn't nearly as clean as I thought - Didn't realize so much poop and gunk was hidden in there! I clean the bare floor, plants and small river rocks routinely, which works out a 10% water change every 2 days, but hadn't checked under the large flat rocks or fake log which were filthy! I guess this is why my ammonia was reading worrying higher lately. Gave everything a thorough vacuum (left the worms on the walls alone, hehe) and changed water about 20%, hopefully with the filth gone the worm population goes down now.
I've put a big ramshorn snail dubbed Curly in there to help keep it tidy, too - It's fun to watch the Axie hunting the snail very seriously, but his persistent but relatively tiny mouth "whoosh" doing nothing to bother the big ol' granddaddy snail at all, hehe