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Aliens in the tank?

A

ayot

Guest
I hope you guys have much more experience with tanks and axies... and you may help me. Here is my question.
After clearing my tank, I observe very small, white worms on the glass. They are about 0.5 to 2.0 mm long, moving quite fast. Are they kind of worms or parasites?

I have no live plants in the tank; water is 18-20 deg. C; water conditions are good thanks to effective filtration.
The only food I use for axies are: (a) live dendrobaena – 2 times per week, and (b) frozen bloodworms – no more than once per week or two.
 
J

joan

Guest
Tanks are normally filled with all sorts of weird crawlies. This can include (but not limited to): Glassworms (which are gnat fly larvae, and move with jerking motions), copepods (small white specks, usually on the glass), planaria (flatworms), or any other host of things.

Especially if you don't have a hood on your tank (not recommended with axolotls), any sort of insect can get down to the water and lay eggs. I had a gnat/glassworm problem for quite some time.

In a nutshell: It's normal to have stuff like that in your tank. If it bothers you a lot, do a good cleaning (siphon substrate, wipe the worms off the glass).
 
A

ayot

Guest
Many thanks, Joan!
happy.gif


I'll try to wipe off these aliens, as you suggested. BTW - any chance to use some chemicals/medicine for the future?
 
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jeff

Guest
The best thing to do is to keep the tank clean and remove excess food
 
A

ayot

Guest
Thanks, Jeff... but I have EXTREAMLY clean tank. There is no food or other organic waste. Just stones and sand. No live plants. Water is nitrates free.
 
J

joan

Guest
Even with the most diligent cleaning, you're bound to have things in your tank. It's normal and healthy.

Medication and chemicals will just endanger your axolotls and probably do no good on taking care of the worms. Just take it as a natural process and clean them out when they get overwhelming.

I have found that if I get some algae, brown or green, on my glass, I'll get small worms that attach themselves and eat the algae. Very handy!
 
A

alex

Guest
yea i have those worms. they dont bother me to much. like joan said just dont worry about it unless it gets overwhelming.
 
J

jennifer

Guest
<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Ayot wrote on Thursday, 23 February, 2006 - 21:08 :</font>

"I have EXTREAMLY clean tank. There is no food or other organic waste. Just stones and sand. No live plants. Water is nitrates free."<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote> This information tells me that something is wrong. Having an extremely clean tank is not really good. If you truly have no nitrates, this means that you have recently done a "total" clean-out of the tank. This kind of cleaning is actually bad, because it does not allow the tank to "cycle" and develop growth of beneficial bacteria. A healthy cycled tank will ALWAYS have some nitrate!

Over the years with aquariums, I've seen all sorts of micro-organisms invade, including a kind of tiny thread-like worm. They are generally not harmful. Over time, they decrease and/or they are balanced out by other kinds of micro-organisms.
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Tank_critters.shtml
 
A

ayot

Guest
<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Jennifer Macke wrote on Sunday, 26 February, 2006 - 02:35 :</font>

" This information tells me that something is wrong. Having an extremely clean tank is not really good. If you truly have no nitrates, this means that you have recently done a "total" clean-out of the tank. This kind of cleaning is actually bad, because it does not allow the tank to "cycle" and develop growth of beneficial bacteria. A healthy cycled tank will ALWAYS have some nitrate!"<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

Jennifer,
We are clearing all waste one-two times per week; high water filtration TetraEX700 plus small doze of Hagen's Nutrafin WasteControl once per week; 5-10% water change per week; no excess food; no plants... and this all gives zero nitrates as per TetraTest.
I'm going to double check water conditions w/ other test, anyway.
BTW: We have some Algae in the tank. I'm not sure about proper english name, but I do believe, that they are Bacillariophyceae kind (brown one).

Maybe our tank is not properly cycled... maybe we should use less efforts to clean it. New, bigger tank is on the way, so I hope, that new one will be treated better.
happy.gif

Many thanks for your comments and suggestions. It helps more, than you can imagine. We have very few Axie breeders in Poland and totally no literature in Polish.

PS - I'm referring as "we" because, in fact, this is my son's tank and animals.
happy.gif


PS2 - As our tank is about 60 liters, and we are changing 3-4 liters of water/week... it is closer to 5% not 10%. Actually, it comes as the ice bricks made from RO water.

(Message edited by Ayot on February 26, 2006)
 
S

sharn

Guest
you dont want too much filtration (axies HATE that), that waste control stuff- never used it personally as i have no need, once a week 30% water changes with a siphon at that time (kills two birds with one stone) and that keeps everything fine. it doesnt hurt to have nitrates at all.
 
E

edward

Guest
Hi Ayot,
When dealing with aquatic animals like axolotls and fish, removal of all visible waste does not mean that all the waste is being removed. This is because these animals excrete ammonia directly into the tank water. This cannot be avoided so there should be some level of nitrates in the system (and the growth of the algae is an indication that there is at least some level of nitrogen source available for the growth).

Ed
 
A

ayot

Guest
<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Edward Kowalski wrote on Sunday, 26 February, 2006 - 12:34 :</font>

"This cannot be avoided so there should be some level of nitrates in the system (and the growth of the algae is an indication that there is at least some level of nitrogen source available for the growth)."<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

Yeah, that's why I can not trust Tetra tests I used recently. New test set will come on Wednesday. I hope, more accurate. I'll keep you posted.
As I received confirmation of new tank delivery, also on Wednesday, I going to start cycling according your suggestions in http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml.
Cheers,
Andy

(Message edited by Ayot on February 26, 2006)
 
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stewart

Guest
If you got the dendrobaena at a creek or pond they could have brought the worms with them.
 
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