Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I noticed recently that there are tiny, clear worms in my slider's tank. So I cleaned his tank and then I filled the part that was underwater (the worms reside under water level) with boiling water.

Satisfied that nothing could survive that, I added ice and then added Brogsworth after it was cool enough.

I looked closely and the worms were still there.

What are they and how do I get rid of them? I didn't want to use just any chemical b/c I know you can't use some of those with turtles.

The worms are harmless (though unsightly) One option might be to always keep a population of feeder guppies in your tank. They will eat the worms (an of course need to be replenished when the turtle eats them). Otherwise if can just keep using a sponge scraper and keep wiping them off the glass. You will not be able to get rid of them completely this way but at least keep their numbers down.

I got rid of a bunch when I last wiped down the cage of algae with a scraper.

I was just worried that they could have been parasitic. He enjoys eating them though!

Thank you, I'm really relieved.

I think I had these worms a while back. I bought a pleco to get rid of them. The pleco ate the worms and cleaned the glass very well. Then my turtles ate the pleco. That was sort of disappointing, but at least the worms never came back.

A couple of days ago I got some feeder fish for him and two snails. I tried putting some of the snails that multiply like crazy from my fish tank into there but they were too small and he ate them.

He hasn't eaten the fish yet so I hope they help with the problem. I don't know if I can put a pleco in there b/c the water is kinda shallow and it's not airated. But I have a filter that also acts as a waterfall so air must get into the water.

It's not too shallow, 4" at the least. Is this sufficient to house a pleco?