Worm On Glass

[Lichan]

I was just feeding my Discus and noticed a rather longish light redy orange creamy thin, leachy looking worm sliding on the glass heading downward, I think part of it was hidden under the gravel, the part I could see what probably about 8 - 10 cm long and it disappeared under the gravel.
What kind of worm is this likely to be ?
Can you treat the water to get rid of them ?
How would it have got in there ?
I have a bare tank other than some fine gravel. Should I remove all the gravel and have a bare bottom tank ??
Are the fish likely to be infected with this kind of worm ??

Any suggestions or comments very much welcomed.

Regards
Peter

[Merrilyn]

Hi Peter, have you been feeding live foods lately, like live blackworm or daphnia, or have you added new plants to the tank.

It sounds like a bloodworm, which is the laval form of a flying insect.

BTW are you sure it's 8 CM long, cos that's huge. Could it have been 8 mm long.

A good gravel vac should remove it.

[Lichan]

Thanks for your reply LR - Hmmm just got a ruler out, the part of the worm I saw was at least 4cm long - and a light creamy red orange (very light)
The only food I can get the discus to eat is frozon blood worm and brine shrimp. I have never fed them live foods.
No the tank only has gravel on the bottom - no plants or driftwood.
Not really sure what to do to get rid of it - Wonder if there are many more of them under the gravel...

[Merrilyn]

At that length, it can't be a good thing to have in your tank, so I think a thorough vacuum of the gravel might reveal some interesting results.

[Lichan]

vacc'd the gravel last night - removed about half of the gravel with the vaccum (on purpose), went through the gravel that I removed today and nothing, no worms. It must still be in there.
I think over the next week or two I will slowly remove more and more gravel until I have a bare bottom tank. This should remove the problem for good and I dont particularly care about whether I have a substrate or not. I just wonder how the fish might be when they see themselves on the bottom of the tank looking back at themselves as it seems to be mirrored when I look down in there ???

[Merrilyn]

You can leave just a thin layer of gravel in the bottom of the tank so they don't stress. Fish do cope quite well in bare bottom tanks, but it may take them a few days to get used to it.