What is this fish parasite??

"Mephistopheles" wrote in
message ...
"Tony" wrote in
:

Tonight while feeding some baby angelfish my wife noticed something
in
their tank. There was a very hard to see "thing" in with the fish.
The thing was much smaller than a human hair and was .25" in length.
It had a bump at one end that I would presume is its head. It was
white all over.

After finding this in our baby tank, we looked at our 75 G. adult
tank. Amazingly, we spotted one of them near the top of the tank.
It
was the same as the other, but was .5" long.

The fish stayed away from this and did not try and eat it. (They
get
live baby brine shrimp regularly and are used to live foods.)

What is this thing likely to be? Is it a concern? How do we get
rid
of these? I'd assume they're more that we're not seeing.

Tony




Might be Hydra. See if you can get one under a microscope or
high-power
magnifying glass to see if it has tentacles. If it is a Hydra, my
book
(Baensch) says they need live food to survive. So you should be able
to
starve them by stopping feedings of live food for a while. My book
also
says they are only a danger to fry -- not adult fish.

Meph

I recognize the description and have those things in my Angel tanks as
well. I am sure its not a hydra....but I do not know what the little
worm is called. Its round.....can swim by wiggling....inhabit
filters.....especially sponge types.......

Angels do not eat them.........they basically ignore them.....they do
not seem to be a parasite.

I have seen this question asked many times, but I do not recall an
answer that I could swallow all the way. They appear to eat
mulm/uneaten food/poop.......

I have gotten rid of them using clorox......A good cleaning vacuuming
and cleaning the filter media real well does not get rid of them. I
always figured they laid eggs or something else does......Clorox does
it, but a lot of effort when they apparently are no serious
threat....but that's my opinion and I do not know what they are....