worms in my fish tank(s)

Question
Overview:
My family is coming to visit so I thought I would clean out my two aquariums. In an 10 gallon tank I have a betta and 3 african dwarf frogs. In my 30 gallon tank I have a mixture of fish probably 8.
Problem is that when I was cleaning out my 10 gallon tank I noticed 100s of tiny worms floating around in the tank. It has been probably a month since I cleaned this tank. The worms are probably less than a centimeter long and are pretty transparent or a clear color. They are just wiggleing around like crazy. So I dropped in one of those fungus free pelets thinking I could kill whatever it was.
Ok so as I start to clean my other tank I noticed the same thing. Now I cleaned this tank less than 2 weeks ago and saw nothing. This is crazy.
The only thing I can think of is MOSQUITOES are laying eggs in my fish aquarium. Can this happen? And what do I do to make them go away? Are my fish in any real danger, can it make them sick?
Help, I freaking out.
P.S. IF they are mosquitos will they soon fly around my house.

Answer
Hi Morgan;

Don't worry. It sounds like harmless planaria. They don't develop into anything except more planaria. (Yuck!) They are thriving on the excess waste in your tanks from overfeeding. We all do it from time to time. We just have to remember to clean up after ourselves when we do. Vacuum the gravel once a week while removing 25% of the water and cut back on food and they will fade away. There is no medication that will kill them and it would be harmful to the fish to try. They are hardy little buggers! Starving them out is the best option.

Many hobbyists will drain the tank and clean the gravel, basically starting over in an effort to eradicate these little nasties. This is very risky to the fish and will cause the tank to go through the break-in period. The water will get cloudy and you will have additional problems that can actually kill your fish. The gradual cleaning and gravel vacuuming that will cause starvation of the planaria is much safer.

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

Come on over and join us on the freshwater fish forum at About.com to get even more information too;
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/questionsanswers/a/naavigateforum.htm

My member name is ChrisR62. See You There!