The 'Other' Tank-mates

[Dark]

Does anyone have any good resources or advice on non-fish/plant life in the aquarium?

After my hiccup with whitespot i moved all of the new plants into a 2/1/1' tank to encourage their growth whilst i was looking around for a new lighting setup.

I then spent an evening researching and creating a (now, rather efficient) DIY CO2 fertilizer and mulling over the amount of nutrient in the water and substrate - I now have a stable environment save a little too much algae.

One tiny valisneria i saved is now 3 large and healthy valisneria with about 7 more sprouts - and thats after 5 weeks! All of the other plants have taken varying leaps in growth, and even the cabomba is now multiplying - never had any luck with the stuff before.

This tank was to be a breeding tank - the water has been stable, the plants grow, but so do the critters...

I have noticed (so far):

thin white worms - (about 10mm) that move the substrate around and occasionally wiggle around whilst floating around in the water.

thin white worms - (about 10mm) that use the sucker at one end of their body to haul themselves up the glass

copepods - population has died down since i noticed them 4 weeks ago

snails - two types, small conical shelled black things, and the orange-ish shelled snails that look like mini rams-horns.

Baby snails? - something that looks like an egg sac but on closer inspection (size about 1mm max) seems to be a snail encased in a total covering of something that is not shell - i have only seen one thing that passes for an egg sac but i am not sure what it is for (still watching!)

there is no real infestation of any particular critter, the snails are a little more populous this week, the worms i only just noticed when i saw them pulling dead plant matter down between the gravel (i think i like them), the copepods are there but they take some finding as opposed to a few weeks ago.

my thoughts on dropping the snail population included a couple of khuli loaches, the algae; a bristlenose. However, after the whitespot and reading up a little too much on diseases i'm not too happy to use the tank for fishkeeping purposes, and regardless of the tanks appearance one of my female opaline gouramis is laden to the point she looks like a balloon - i think its time to put her and her man in a place where they can have kids.

regardless of the eventual usage of the tank it has been well worth watching a small biotype develop though i am still tempted to go and buy some small cheap fish and throw it in there to see if it dies of any deadly diseases - i couldn't bring myself too.

Tank Stats:

26degC, 14 hours light/day from 1 36w 10000k and 1 36w red spectrum, 2/1/1' tank filled to 95%, minimal direct daylight, 1-2" propagating sand substrate, assorted plants, minimal filtration through a bubble powered foam block, 1 DIY CO2 unit with non-forced diffusion, misc lifeforms as mentioned above, no fish

[Bilbo]

I know this is an old post but I have also just noticed last night millions of tiny worms moving across the glass in one of my tanks. This biggest ones would be about 10mm but countless thousands of others are maybe 1 - 2 mm long and very thin. Maybe 1/10thmm (a thou or 2 as my Dad would say) What are they? and do they do any harm? How do I kill em?

My guess is they came of river rocks and survived the boiled water and bleach and everything else so they may be hard to kill off.

[Caryl]

Sounds like plnaria worms perhaps bilbo. Harmless but a nuisance if they get out of hand. Usually caused by over feeding.

[Doc Holiday]

Nothing to worry to much about Bilbo, I have thousands of the little critters in my tank due to the oscars messy eating habits and nothing to clean up after them. just make sure you keep the tank clean quite regularly and it will keep the population at bay.

[Interfecus]

If they have arrow-like heads then they'll be planaria. If they are, they're completely harmless but indicate an overabundance of decaying organic matter such as dead plants or excess food.

I once found some of these in a stream and kept them for a few weeks in a small fish bowl, feeding them with little bits of cooked egg yolk. It was neat to watch them sit on the food, sucking up the yolk through a tube on their underside. They developed a yellow patch after feeding so you could clearly see white planaria coming in to eat from all around (they sense the direction to the food using chemical gradients across the broadened head) and yellow-bellied ones crawling away again.

[Interfecus]

If you chop the head in half down the middle between the eyes each half develops into a complete new head, ending up with two heads joined together at the base.

[Bilbo]

I am not planning to chop there heads down the middle thanks anyway Inter. Doubt I could as they are thinner than any cutting equipment I could get.

Glad they are harmless though so thanks.

[Dark]

people are always on the look out for worms to put in their garden, i have come to the conclusion that fishtanks are probably no exception (planted ones anyway).

I suffered no ill effect from the worms that were in the tank, and as soon as i added a substantial amount of fish, all the worms and other little critters mentioned just up and vanished, along with the baby snails.