Planarian Worms

So the strategy works! As of today, there are no more Planarian worms in the tank! YAY! ^_^

Tackling Planarian Worms

My blood parrot fish has been for weeks behaving strangely and exhibiting signs of unhappiness and discomfort. They used to be less afraid of me, less irritated and were very happy to munch on food and come closer to the tank walls to look at me when I stare at them from outside the tank walls. However, not only were they more timid, more "jumpy" and not willing to come and look at me, they were also

• Not eating. In fact, they would eat and puke it out almost instantly...
• Always finding ways to scratch themselves against tank decorations, gravels, anything they can get their skin on
• Easily scared, feeling less comfortable in their habitat.

I have not been able to diagnose the problem until a friend of mine who is experience in breeding fishes noticed that my tank was infested with white Planarian worms! 

You can find out more about the Planarian worms from these links I used

http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/planaria_white_worms/

http://www.aquariumfish.net/information/having_trouble_p2.htm

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Ali_Planaria_Worms.html

Majid Ali says in his article that "Planarian worms are tiny, thin and milky white in appearance. They are distantly related to flukes, and some of these worms have been implicated in skin slime problems with marine fish. They are usually seen slowly gliding over the surfaces of the tank, surfaces of the glass and under the lid of box filters."

They are indeed very hard to spot, especially in my case where they are so tiny. In fact, they are only a few mm long, thin and fine but if you stare at them long enough, you'll notice that those white thin "hair-like" worms actually move... 

Most websites would say that Planarian worms are "harmless", which I would actually disagree as it claimed the lives of one of my blood parrots. In small amount they are pretty harmless but when you have an infested tank, it is deadly... 

According to the above sources, Planarian worms appear because of over feeding and also high Ammonia level. For my case, I did a PH, Nitrate, Nitrite and Ammonia test and were all good levels, which means I already have a good eco-system running with lots of good bacteria inside, so the only problem left was overfeeding.

Anyhow, first thing I needed to do was to kill off the Planarian worms (duh...). The online sources recommended Quick Cure but unfortunately I couldn't find Quick Cure in any of the aquatic pet stores I visited. I was recommended Seachem's Para Guard by one of the friendly store owner's son.

Tried it and it seems to work pretty decently. First day of dosage, left it over night, I can already see most of the Planarian worms no longer stick to the wall (probably dead) and many more motionless on the tank walls. Did a 25% water change, added more Para Guard and now it looks like the Planarian population in my tank has already been reduced by 90%! 

Some forumers recommended API General Cure (Prazi & Metro) which I have not tried. I might try it if my Planarian worm issue still persists.

So now my objective is to go with the direction that "prevention is better than cure". The problem I noted is that my blood parrot likes to eat their food in whole, chew them and spit out some left overs which are left to drop on the gravel, hence leaving uneaten food (they don't seem to go back down to eat them...). So in the end, I bought 4 mini koi's and drop them into the aquarium. Koi's are like goldfish, never know when to stop eating, so my koi's are happily eating all the leftovers on the gravel that my blood parrot drops. Hahahaha!

Lets hope this works and no more Planarian worms in my tank!