planaria and mesh bags

Question
what are some house hold items that i can use for mesh bags to get rid of planaria(for the meat). i have had my 2 fish(angels) in the 10 Gal.(yes way to small but all i have time and room for) tank for about 4 months(they were in with 10 guppies they slowly died with in 3 or less weeks sucked up by filter- didn't clean out tank)and on 8-24-07 i found "eggs"on my heater thinking "bad parasite" then i looked up "white worms in fish tank" and planaria came up i took out all(99.9%)of gravel and all decorations the only things in tank are fish, filter, heater, air thing, and those dang planaria and aqua. salt 1/2 table- don't know if it will hurt fish or not read somewhere that it will help kill planaria
thank you
Tala

Answer
Hi Tala;

I would use a small jar instead. They will climb the sides and get in there easily since they will be starving now and desperate for food. Place it in the bottom of the tank at night and they will find it after the lights are out. Remove it as soon as lights are on in the am.

The problem is actually already solved with removal of the gravel so you really don't need to remove them. Unless of course you are looking for a little satisfaction that you have flushed the little suckers down the commode. **insert wicked grin and macabre laugh here** ..... They will starve out and die now that the waste in the gravel is gone anyway. There is a risk that if you use meat bait to collect them, they will just survive longer and the bait will further pollute the water. Anything "high protein" left in your tank for longer than 10 minutes is dangerous because it rots very quickly. Planarians love rotted protein, but as we speak they are already dying of starvation anyway.   

Make some water changes to remove the dead planarian bodies though. If there are enough of them they will pollute the tank too. Change 25% every day for a few days until you don't see any more. Changing more than 25% can shock your fish so it's best to do no more than that in a 24 hour period. It would be best to withhold food from your fish for a couple of days too. It will decrease the waste in the system. Fish don't need to eat every day anyway. It's good for their digestion to "fast" one day a week or so.

Just easing my own conscience here.......I know you are aware of this and don't want to hear me say it, but I hope you will consider finding room in your house for a larger tank for your angels. There are taller tanks that don't take up much more room than a ten gallon but are almost twice the gallon capacity. Small tanks actually take more diligent care and maintenance than larger ones. Diseases and waste accumulation can run rampant very quickly in such a small space. Your angels will have water quality issues, chronic health problems and become stunted over the next few months if they are left in your little tank. Their lives will be considerably shorter than the expected 10 years or more as well. For their sake, please get them a bigger tank. Okay. Did my job. ;-)

I hope your planaria issue is solved soon. It is indeed a genuine 'pain the neck' for sure...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins