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Question: Help with detritus worms, nothing is working!

holtzmanator

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Hey guys! I have a major problem with Detritus worms, and it's been driving me nuts. I know this post is really long, but please bear with me. I have also read all the posts on this forum about detritus worms, so I should know how to get rid of them, but they wont go away!

I got my Axolotl three years ago, and for the first couple years, he lived in a 10 gallon tank. I never had issues with detritus worms in that tank. I even went on vacation for 4 weeks once, and my room mate was feeding my Axy, but was not doing water changes, and when I got back I came home to a happy, healthy Axy with no detritus worms to be seen.
A few months ago, I upgraded him to a brand new 29 gallon tank with a hang-on filter rated for a 30 gallon tank. From there, everything has gone horribly wrong. After a few weeks, I had a horrible detritus worm outbreak. They were EVERYWHERE. Covering the tank glass, floating around in the water, all over the bottom of the tank, they had just exploded. I read pretty much every thread on here and on various other websites concerning the outbreak, and everyone said it is normal and due to there being an abundance of waste in the tank. More frequent water changes, improved tank filtration, and decreasing feeding SHOULD take care of the problem.


So I bought a new filter (a fluval 206 canister rated for a 45 gallon tank), I also bought an XL sponge filter to also aid in filtration and increase O2 levels, I changed my water change schedule from 20% weekly to 20% daily, and I decreased feeding from daily to twice a week. It has now been 6 weeks, and I see very little improvement. I will clean all the worms off the sides and bottom tank glass, and then vacuum them all up with a siphon, do a 20%-40% water change depending on if I get all the worms out with the first 20% water change, and remove all the ornaments from the tank. The ornaments will always be covered in worms. I wash the worms from the ornaments, put them back in the tank, and the tank looks nice and clean. No worms in sight, no food on the bottom of the tank, and no waste to be seem at all. The next day, there are worms everywhere, all over the tank glass, all over the tank ornaments/hides, worm carcasses all over the bottom of the tank, they're simply everywhere. So I repeat the process, clean them all up, siphon them out, wash the ornaments, do a water change, etc. Rinse and repeat, every single day. I should also note that according to my 6 panel water test strips, everything about my water quality is "normal".



My poor Axy is now losing weight from having his feeding cut down so severely. He will consume all the worms I give him in a matter of minutes, and any waste he produces I siphon out as soon as I see it.
I'm at my wits end here. It's been a month and a half of constant tank maintenance, and nothing will make these worms go away. Every post on here that talks about chemicals says that using chemicals to get rid of these worms is a horrible idea, like "using a machine gun to kill a fly" as one user said, and that increasing tank maintenance will get rid of the problem. Well, for me, it hasn't, and I don't know what to do. I'm going out of town in a couple weeks, and I cant even imagine what my tank will look like when I get back, considering how bad the worm problem gets after just 24 hours after cleaning.

I don't know what to do at this point. Any advise would be greatly, greatly appreciated, and thanks for taking the time to read my long post!
 

Hayleyy

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You don't need to reduce the food you're feeding your axolotl, just make sure they eat all of it and anything uneaten gets siphoned up. And cleaning poop as soon as you see it.
What kind of substrate do you have? I would guess that is where they are coming from, it's where I always notice them first. The best option is to take out all of the substrate and either replace or clean with hot water. The downside is this will kill any beneficial bacteria and your cycle may restart.
 

holtzmanator

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I don't have any substrate, it's just a bare bottom. I actually bought a bunch of sand to put down as substrate but when the worm outbreak happened I decided against it since the worms would live in it and it would make cleaning out all the dead worms a real pain. I'll increase his feeding again, thanks for the tip!
 

Hayleyy

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Oh wow no substrate yet worm outbreak! Are there any live plants that they could be hiding in? Check your filter. Rinse the media in tank water (in a bucket, not the tank) and maybe replace some of it one bit at a time (a couple of weeks between each media change). If there is any sponge/foam in the filter replace that first as the worms could be hiding in the material. Hope this helps!
 
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