worms in freshwater aquarium

Question
I had a 55 gallon freshwater tank with various kinds of regular pet store fish in it and I noticed thousands of tiny, hair-like worms swimming around rapidly.  There were also a few thicker and darker worms sticking to the glass.  They were not much bigger than the white worms swimming around.  I noticed that the worms kind of form pupas that float at the top edges of the water and later emerge as little flies that sit on top of the water.  My fish all died off despite my efforts to kill these worms and flies.  Do you know what they are?

Answer
Hi there jeanette.


I am very sorry to hear about your aquarium tragedy. I belive they are the worms called planaria. They could also be caddis flys too. The only way that i know how to fix this is to get all new gravel, and clean the tank with a 40:1 ratio of water to bleach soloution. Make sure you rinse it untill you dont smell any chlorine.

Also, only use a reputable fish store that you KNOW takes good care of their tanks, becaues its quite possible where you got the worms from.

Sorry bout the disaster.

Thanks,
   ~Matt