I sure hope I'm imagining that these things are alive. I just did a weekly partial water change for one of my betta tanks. Its a five gallon with only 1 betta in it. For some reason, this week the water got really murky, worse than ever before; it was really rather scarey. I just did it about 10 minutes ago and the filter is doing a good job at making it better but it still worries me. Well, I was staring at the water and on the glass I saw these little white guys. I'm not sure if they are alive or if it's the water current that is moving them. They are kind of tear drop shaped and smaller than a pin head. Very VERY tiny. I asked my husband to take a look and he said he couldn't see them moving; they are that small. They are only on the glass not the fish and I hope they don't get on the fish. Aikidoka, the betta in this particular tank, was the start of our betta collection and I am always paranoid about something happening to him. The past few days he's not as excited about his food either. He will mosey up and get a bite or two but he's not in as much of a hurry to get to it like he used to be. Maybe I am overfeeding him and he's just not hungry, but I sure hope he's not sick. All water levels check out normally as they do every week.

any thoughts on what the dot guys might be?

MonksSharona, do those things wiggle a bit like tiny little worms? Usually that stuff hangs around on the glass, and I have seen it in tanks that have a bigger waste build up than usual. Since you said that the tank was a lot murkier than usual, that could be the explanation.
They will disappear after a while if the water is "too clean" for them, and are not harmful whatsoever....

sounds like planeria. they used to stick to my fish! disgusting things. usually if you get rid of all the excess muck and waste and syphon uneaten food, they should go away. i found a good website about it a while ago. ill see if i can find it again.

woohoo! found it! http://ebiomedia.com/gall/classics/Plan/planaria.html
click on the links below it and theres loads of info about them. hope this helps

May i know how deep your gravel is?

The gravel is a couple of inches deep. It's a five gallon with a filter in it and it only has the one fish in it. I can't believe how crappy the water got in one week. I change out about 20% of the water every week with the vaccuum. The little....things on the glass are round with a point on one end. We have seen planaria before in a tank that had no gravel etc. (they were easy to see in that one). Like I said, all the parameters test perfectly so I don't know what the murkieness was all about! It did calm down very quickly and Aik's tank looks very good today. I am not 100% sure that these things are alive but I wanted to be sure. He's our boy! These things are about the size of a tiny air bubble....very VERY tiny air bubble.


I do worry about the not eating well thing though too.

Thanks so much!!!!!

I agree that you should ignore the planaria/worms as long as they aren't on your fish. Just feed very lightly, and keep vacuuming and doing frequen small water changes until the cloudyness goes away. You'll probably always have a few in there, which is normal.

Is it an undergravel filter? If not, I would take lots of that gravel out for easier vacuuming.

Caroline in San Jose

P.S. At first I pictured a couple of guys like in the old TidyBowl Commercials!

Your tank, in eccence, is a very alive part of an ecosystem.

There are literally millions of organisms living there, with ich and velvet to name a few.

That's why it is important to keep your fish in ideal condition, so their immune system can do their job.

Kind of like our immune system.

It is only when the immune system is compromised, does illness take its foot hold.

If you are seeing planeria in your tank, it means there are excess nutrients in your tank.

Cutting back on feeding, and adding a few live plants should take care of the problem... if not, if they are planaria, your boy, I'm sure, will make a fine feast of them in no time!