How do I get rid of helminths parasites?

Question
I have an established tank about 75 gallons with cichlids.  We just noticed small worm like parasites on our tank.  How do we kill them and not the fish?

Thanks, Stephanie

Answer
Hi Stephanie,
  The good news is that you don't have to kill them directly -- you can just make the water conditions better and they will go away on their own -- this is far better than treating the water with some chemical to kill the parasites because that only fixes the symptom and not the problem.  The basic problem is that there are too many free nutrients in your tank.  This could be caused by a number of things such as overfeeding or insufficient water changes.  The general rule is that you should be changing about 15-20% of the water in your tank EVERY week.  If you do that, the fish will stay healthy and you won't have those worms.  Please note that it is much better to change say 15% EVERY week, than 50% once a month.  The latter can actually cause all sorts of problems.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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