help! worms in my tank!

[Ca Nguyen]

i was sitting my my aquarium room just observing, and i noting all my shrimps were swimming and over active, so i came to investigate. i notice hundreds of hair thin 5-8mm long worms. look like microworm!!

i did some google searches and can't get any positive id on them. i know it's not hydras, not planarias,
not leeches. possibly nematodes.

are they harmful to my red cherries or crystal shrimps?

where could they possibly come from? i haven't add anything to my tank for a month.

how and i get rid of them?

[Ca Nguyen]

well, i'm positive they are nematodes now. look like they've been living and breeding in my algae film. and i recently turn the filter on high to break up the film. and this just throw them all over. they seem to be harmless, and most fish would happily eat them, but the problem is how do i get a fish that would eat the worms and not my shrimplets :(

[sunkenmetal]

How big is your tank? I have some Zebra Danios in with my cherry shrimp that don't bother my shrimp. But my tank is 56 gallons...

[Ca Nguyen]

it's 7.9 gallons, but i'm sure there's only about 5 gallons in water as there are plenty of substrate and dense drift wood. i happen to have some zeebra danios in a seperate tank, but they are quite old, and BIG i'm sure if it wanted to, it can eat an adult shrimp. i'm looking at my endlers fries, but they live in brackish 7.8 ph water while my shrimp tank is 6.5 ph.

[sunkenmetal]

I have seen my Zebras try to go after my adult cherry shrimp but the shrimp are to fast for them lol.

[electricblue]

Neons will do ok with shrimp from my experience, you can always get toothpick fish and I thing fish gallery also had some real tiny fish

[sunkenmetal]

My neons never bother my shrimp...

[Ca Nguyen]

luckily, i have a school of those too. i'll try throwing one in.

[electricblue]

luckily, i have a school of those too. i'll try throwing one in.

I just bought 10 neons saturday to accompany 2 i had but i'm guessing they all must of ben sick bc all die except the ones i had. I'll probably add some to my yellow shrimp cause i'm experiencing the same problem.

[Ca Nguyen]

all 10 died? wow, i think that might be an acclimation problem. i had one single neon in the tank for a bit now, and i can't see any worm in sight. so i will remove him tomorrow and add a oto to take care of the algae

[electricblue]

I know theyre sensitive to temp changes but I doubt it was acclimation, they all did fine for 24hrs with no signs of stress, but on the 2nd day I found 7 dead and 1 with ich, I treated the tank but yesterday (the third day) the remaining of the 10 new ones died while my fish were still fine.... really dunno what it was evrything else is fine