I.D and help please

I have some tiny little yellow stringy worms that have infested several pieces of LR.

I added a mushroom colony a few weeks back and then noticed all these worms coming out of the LR that the mushrooms are on.

I am looking for an I.D on them and a possible solution to get them out of the tank. I tried sucking them out with a siphon when doing my water change but they stay attached to the rock....they seem to be spreading to other pieces of LR.

Help please.

the photo should show what im talking about, the are very thin, long and yellow in color, with multiple little strands coming out of one spot.

 

The spaghetti worm, maybe?

 

Yeah I agree it is a hair worm or spaghetti worm issue. They aren't harmful last I read but the problem here is if they are reproducing in your tank they have too much to eat. More food means more pests. From the looks of the algae growing in your tank that is a possibility.

Long story short, if you starve them they will dwindle in numbers until they reach a happy equilibrium in your tank.

Do you feed daily or every three days or twice a day because I would bet you might feed too much, maybe? Also need to look in to a tank maintenance schedule to keep your phosphates low(which with a algae build up like that even if you test it will read 0 because it is all in the algae being stored) and keep your other parameters in check along with some manual removal and it could help you clear up the algae as well.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Thanks for the tip, It has definitly been over feeding....I work 3 weeks away from home each month and my girlfriend has been doing my daily tasks, I just got home and saw the algae bloom.

The reason i was asking about the worms is because they are all over a piece of LR that has some zoas on it and they seem to be dying....

they use to have long thin tenticle looking things that go around the outer edge of each polyp but they have all become little bumps now and they are usually closed.

I never had a problem with zoas before and thought it could be the worms...

 

If the worms are irritating them,which from you said it sounds like the worms are, then it could be the worms. I also lost a few zoas to a algae growth that took them over and they refused to open again.

I think,could be wrong, the spot the worms are coming from is actually a centralized worm those small ones are connected to. I have no experience with it but maybe there is a way to kill the colony. Sorry I can't be more help with that though.

 

My guess would be the zoas are irritated with the water conditions that are allowing for overpopulation of worms and algae. You'll need to get your water balance back and leave strict feeding instructions for when you're not there.

 

alright thanks guys,

I just cleaned out my canister filter and replaced the carbon inserts.

My skimmer runs all the time and my 20G fuge seems to be having issues as well,

I use to have calupera, cheato, and some red bubble algae in the fuge....my cheato has turned white and the calupera is all gone for the most part......this short fuzzy mat of short hair algae seems to be taking over in the fuge.

would increasing the flow of water through the fuge help aid in reducing the hair algae?

I pull out the chunks of hair algae and occasionally turn the contents of the fuge so light will reach the cheato or else the hair algae covers the surface....

I will forsure address the over feeding.

 

+1 on the one central critter with extending tenticles. They are kind of like an anemone of sorts. Just no foot and live withing the rock. The canister relates to the algea as do phosphates. If you clean all the pads at once youll see some dino bacteria from a mini cycle. Itll prolly finish off the zoas. clean one out of however many pads each water change by rincing the pad in the syphened out aquarium water. That way you dont kill the good bacteria with faucet water. R.o. unit takes care of some other nutrient problems. By the pic, I would say some water changes are in order.