Tiny White Worms On Glass

[souljah]

In my healthy fish tank I've had
for 2 years, just recently I have
had these very tiny
white worms appearing,
crawling up the glass inside the
front, sides and back,
(like in groups of 20) they are very small
and when you look closely you can see them
crawling.
does anyone know what the hell these things
are? and are they harmful or what?

 

[bluemarlin]

I've had these in my aquarium too. Back then I used a copper based medication to get rid of them. Be careful with copper though as it will kill, snails, shrimp, most invertibrates and a zillion other things.
When I used the copper I killed my snails along with the little white worms. This is a good question and I am looking forward to the replies.

 

[bhav_88]

They sound like baby tube worms, but I've never seen any that move...

 

[bang guy]

They sound like baby Polycheate worms to me. Congrats!

 

[souljah]

well thats great I have worms.....
are these worms harmful? benificial?
Will they kill my fish?
Will they kill my tank?
Are they harmless?
someone please enlighten me

 

[bang guy]

"are these worms harmful? benificial?"
99.99% are beneficial. There is one specie that eat gorgonians and about a dozen that are predators. The other 10,000 species are detrivires or scavengers.
"Will they kill my fish?"
Nope. Most make excellent fish food.
"Will they kill my tank?"
Nope. They are great cleanup critters.
"Are they harmless?"
The vast majority are beneficial.
Guy

 

[souljah]

awesome thanks

 

[jeffrey-chiang]

well, I am not so good at English....
In an old system , it's hard to avoid the NO3. The increasing of the NO3 , the increasing amount of the worms . and in a Berlin/FO tank, It's good for the fish...coz the fish like them. But they always appear in the light-off.
Jeff from Taiwan

 

[souljah]

I'm not so sure if they are worms though
I studied them closely today and they almost look
like little tiny white bugs or lice
All 3 of many tanks have these little white bugs
and they are all over my glass in all of them
I sure hope they are harmless

 

[bang guy]

Do they look like any of these bugs from my refugium? The Larger are Munnidae Isopods the smaller are Harpactiod Copepods. Both are excellent detrivores and wonderful fish food.

 

[souljah]

thats them!
thanks bang guy

 

[bang guy]

Sorry about being so far off base with my first attempt at an Id.... I though we were talking about worms <img src="graemlins//urrr.gif" border="0" alt="[urrr]" />