tiny little white worms????

[maia]

Hi everyone,
I first brought home my axolotls less than a month ago, they freaked out alot and suddenly lost all of their gill feathers without any apparent cause? everyone tried to help me on Caudata but it was too late they must have been stressed and sick even before I got them :-( and my beautiful brown one died suddenly.

However, I am pleased to say my little black guy (rufio) has come back ok and his gill feathery bits are growing back quickly in the last week.
he's doing great and he's swimming around, eating a couple of pellets every 3 days or so and pooing too (is the poo meant to be like tiny little grain/pellet looking?)

Anyway today, I was changing the water and noticed heaps of tiny tiny little (3mm long) white worm things wriggling around on the bottom of the tank. They are too small to take a picture of them?
I have just glass on the bottom with some rocks scattered in corners (no gravel or sand) and i have a couple of living plants, one on wood and 2 golden snails?

Has anyone had experience with worms before? Any help is always appreciated, thanks Maia

 

[kapo]

see: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Tank_critters.shtml

Do you do a daily spotclean of your tank, of uneaten food/poo, and how often do you siphon/waterchange?

I've never seen a pellet poo, but generally, dependant on what they eat and how fast you spot it, it looks a brown/pinkish rugby ball. If you don't spot it, it can disintegrate pretty fast into a dust like matter.

Also, keep an eye on the water parameters and temperature especially as we move into the warmer summer months, more so for Australia then NZ!

 

[sezz]

yes i had those worms lol
Theyre so small and annoying!!!!

They wont hurt your axie. ive had those worms twice now and the first time they were in the tank for a long time because i had some hidden blood worms under rocks that i didnt see and those worms just appeared out of no where and so i read thats what they do. Kapo said it, they eat uneaten food and those worms produce like ants!!!!

I just had them again last week, but not to worry, ive done a 50% water change today and took aaaaaaal the fake plants and what not and gave the tank a good scrub and siphoned all the stuff and worms i could find. but DO NOT CLEAN THE PLANTS AND TOYS! argh never! only the tank glass or substrate

all gone now. just to remember and i need to make myself do it too, feed the axies and once theyre done, fish out the food. otherwise the worms will appear and annoy the hell out of me. because they stick to the glass and die and then turn into dirt.

and yes the poo is in a shape of a football >.< so funny!!!!

 

[maia]

Hello again

Hello again, thanks for you help!

I dont have any substrate just glass and the only apparent 'poo' i find is sort of tiny dark brown grainy looking stuff but I mean tiny - each little piece wouldnt measure more than 2mm?

The worms are so disgusting and I dont know where they came from..
i have been doing regular water changes and only noticed them when I disrupted the water.

I feed my axie pellets which i drop in the tank and when I come back half an hour later or so they are gone, he wont eat anything straight away or from my hands.

should I change 50% of the water? how do I get all of the worms out of the remaining water?

Thanks, Maia

 

[sezz]

Hello Maia!

yes do a 50% water change, take the plants and everything out but do not wash them. get a sponge (prefferbably from an old filter) or such material, and wipe down the worms you see stuck on the glass.
Only if it annoys you.
They come from uneaten food. im not too sure wether they come from poop aswell i am not a 100% positive, but take all considerations and make sure the tank is poop free ASAP and food free ASAP.

Just remember, those worms are harmless. in normal fish tanks with fish, the fish eat those worms so there really isnt a problem there. but the axies cant see them so they stay there and wiggle around. this is what ive learnt.

but just for the "pain in the bum" grab a clean filter sponge, wipe out the stuff and put all the plants and things back in.

It really is up to your lifestyle

 

[Kaysie]

Doing a 50% water change won't get rid of the worms. The worms do not come from food or poop, but they do FEED on the food and poop. The only way to get rid of the worms is to keep the tank clean.

You should use a turkey baster or a siphon to clean up 'poo dust' off the bottom of the tank.

 

[Bellabelloo]

I have these little things in my tank, plus something that looks slightly like a barnicles...though having said that I was looking through the food section and came across something that looks like a tiny tiny crab that lives in its mullusc type shell, and kinda hope they might be those!. Anyway I suspect it was intruduced via the water butt water I had used. I'm not so keen on those but suspend the brine shrimp net in the tank for an hour or so and collect them for the axolittles. The numbers are slowly going down.