worms in water

Question
Hi Ron, I emailed Chris the other day, he was helpful and gave me a link to to site on malawi bloat and also recommended me to email you.

Anyway, since then I've had a casualty. My red jewel cichlid who had a bloated stomach at the time, couldn't be saved. I did however manage to save my convict who also fell sick over night. He's not fully recovered, but he's back in the tank with the other two (red oscar and tiger oscar)

I noticed yesterday morning that there were little white worms, (very tiny lil pricks) and they were all over the glass and over the rocks. Some were actually on the fish. I don't know what they are but they're to come back this morning.

I did a 30% change in the water lastnight. Changed my filters, removed all the accessories and some of rocks (I poured boiling water over them all) and vacuumed.

Also added melafix to the tank as well as aqua septic which aids in reducing harmful organisms.

Please helm me. I couldn't bare to lose another fish. I've had these fish for over 2 1/2 years.

many thanks,
Dinah


Answer
Hi Dinah,
 The little white worms generally are a symptom of poor water quality. I haven't heard of them actually hurting the fish but if you have them on the fish, you must have quite a lot of them.  Basically here is what happens. The little guys are always present in low numbers in a tank but if the amount of nutrients gets very high, then the worm population explodes and suddenly you will see them on the glass.   This is very common in tanks with oscars because oscars tend to eat a lot and they are messy eaters. That puts a lot of nutrients into the water.  

 Fortunately, the solution is really easy. You need to cut down on the food input a little and absolutely make sure that you only put enough food in the tank that the fish eat immediately. Don't let uneaten food sit in the tank.  

 Secondly, do more partial water changes.  In the short term, do a 25% water change every night for about 3 or 4 days and you should see a rapid reduction in the worms. Then start a regular schedule of changing 25% of the water once a week, every week and the problem should go away.
I don't see any value in treating the tank with chemicals because that won't get at the root of the problem (and
costs money unnecessarily).

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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