Tinny white worms swimming about in my tank ?

[UCGrafix]

Hi everyone,

Here is a new twist in my tank.
I have small white worms swimming about in my tank, they are about half an inch long and the size of a hair ?

What are they ?
Where do they come from ?
Is it good or bad ?

It seems that about every two months, I have new things to deal with of witch I have never had before.
I wonder what will be next ?

Cheers,
Denis

[Julie]

Some form of planaria I think, I had it in my tank when I purchased the filter already cycled.  Clean out filter, vacuum substrate....they'll eventually go away.

[mseguin]

Planaria usually move around along the glass, they look kinda like very small cross eyed slugs. My guess is nematodes of some kind. How are they swimming. Either way, they are probably jsut an indication you need to keep your water a bit cleaner.

[Julie]

Matt, have you seen them close enough to realize they are cross eyed?

http://experts.about.com/q/Freshwater-Aquarium-3216/Free-swimming-white-worm.htm

[mseguin]

Actually I have. They look cross eyed because they have light sensitive spots. They're vaguely arrow shaped.
http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.luc.edu/depts/biology/111/planaria.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.luc.edu/depts/biology/111/planaria.htm&h=480&w=640&sz=24&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=dzn7wA69v1I-FM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplanaria%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DDVXA,DVXA:2005-05,DVXA:en%26sa%3DN

[Julie]

Now that's ugly, wheres the corrective lens?

[zapisto]

actually this one is cutest i ever see
usually they are more ugly
100% agree with matt

[zippity]

i have these white worms too in a couple of my tanks, i do about 25-40 percent water change 2X weekly so how much cleaner can i go? All my fish are extremely healthy and i posted about these guys before and was given the advice that no harm no foul is ok with them. When I do water changes, they get sucked up by the bunches, i dont normally see them swimming around, they just hang out in my substrate. Is this the same problem for you Denis?

[UCGrafix]

Planaria usually move around along the glass, they look kinda like very small cross eyed slugs. My guess is nematodes of some kind. How are they swimming. Either way, they are probably just an indication you need to keep your water a bit cleaner.

These are not the crossed eye kind. lol
They are the size of one of your hair on top of your head and hald an incj long, there that slim. lol
If you can see eyes on one of these, your good. lol
Don't ask me for a picture, I had to put my face on the glass to see it myself.

They swim towards the surface of the tank a few inches from the glass and are very active, it's by pure coincidence that I noticed it myself, I was looking ( more like checking inch by inch ) around my tank to see if my 4 new and expensive Clown loaches had cleaned up my recent Snail problem.
Good news, it seems like the snail have things under control, I only see them here and there on my plastic plants, I also think my Clown Loaches are so full of snails, there taking a break. lol

As for cleanliness.
Once a week, I vacuum my tank and remove up to 30% of water, and scrub the tank glass if need be.
Once a month I give the substrate a good shake down while vacuuming under everything that can be moved such as my driftwood, I also clean my canister filter thoroughly and replace the Carbon media, the tank glass also gets scrubbed down at the same time as the glass top.
How cleaner do can I be ?

Cheers,
Denis