worm-like white things on my glass. are these baby snails?

[mdspurl]

I noticed the same type of worms on my 55 this morning. I have been feeding my FH's more often in order to grow them bigger so I can introduce them to my 125. I did a water change today, replaced some filter cartridges and now they are almost gone. I figure I'll do another water change tomorrow and hopefully that will clean out the system. I guess I'll also cut down on the amount of food I've been feeding as well.

 

[Acer]

I've got an outbreak of what I believe is planaria in my 5g Betta tank.

I knew I was overfeeding; half the flake food would sink, and the Betta only likes to eat floating food

I was doing a water change a few weeks ago and notice what looked like dog hair all on the glass... turned out I have hundreds of these damn things, some up to 2 cm long!

I'm cleaning the tank more and cutting back on feeding... I'm not worried about it at all, but it is a bit of a pain to always see them. On the other hand, when I clean the tank and stir up the sand it causes them to swim around, and the Betta gets a nice treat!

 

[AquariumLover]

where do they come from???

 

[vamptrev]

Most likely detritus worms:

Annelids “Segmented Worms” - Including:
DETRITUS WORMS

The annelids are the phylum of segmented worms which includes earthworms. Most annelids are NOT purely aquatic in fresh water; the annelids found in freshwater are all oligochaetes (which means "few-bristled") and are not very important in the freshwater ecology as are their marine cousins, the polychaetes (which means "multi-bristled"), are in marine environments.
All the oligochaete worms are hermaphrodites (an organism that posses both male and female genitalia). Many are nearly microscopic too

Detritus Worms (from the group of worms called Oligochaetes, sub group naidid worms) are often misidentified in the aquarium hobby as Planaria without close inspection by many internet articles such as about.com.
Many of these worms are accidentally introduced by live plants, gravel (especially in the case of common Detritus Worms) live fish foods, and even brought in with fish transfers.
(Click picture to enlarge)
Many not familiar with Detritus worms will label these as everything form midge larvae, Planaria to baby earthworms, of which none is true. They are very common and most often seen during vacuuming and other cleaning procedures.
These worms generally are not a problem, however high numbers of particular species can indicate low oxygen levels and low filter productivity, which very often suggests some degree of pollution caused by poor cleaning procedures, over crowding, over feeding and poor filtration
Please reference these sources for even more identification (and further information so as to dispel the internet aquarium myth that these are Planaria):
Planaria
Aquatic Life: Worms ,
Oligochaeta Worms
Aquatic Worms
Source
http://aquarium-answers.blogspot.com...s-in-fish.html

very good info but i think he is talking about something else. they look like a snail but are very small, white, and no antennas. they slither rather then wiggle like planaria or the segmented worms.

ive had them b4 too. i tried to get pictures b4 but they are too small.

would a uv sterilizer help?

 

[Smertrios]

Except for being white that sounds like what I had in my tank when I first brought some riven fish and crayfish home last year. The things in my tank were mud colored or redish and were long in length, flat in height, moved like a snail and had an triangle shaped head. They would glide across the glass and if they happened across anything dead they would stay there and feast. I added some aquarium salt and within a day they were all crowded up at the water line... few days later they were all dead and I have not seen anything of them since. If only staghorn algae and snails were so easily killed =<