help needed

iv got up this morning to find my bristle nose tank with whiteish coloured like flat worms!!!! anyone no any sites i can check out to find out what they are and how to get rid of them please

sounds like these are planaria worms to me. youre going to need some aquarium salt to get rid of these and do gravel vacs daily. their cause is normaly deep gravel and uneaten food.

what salt do i need as iv never used it before? also whats the dosage as i dont wanna lose my bristlenoses

aquarium salt from any LFS i would say a level table spoon to 5 gallons would be safe to use and daily gravel vacs and replace the salt accordingly untill they have gone.
how deep is your gravel and do you have a under gravel fillter?????

ok. the gravel is about a inch deep no undergravel filter

if it was me i would get rid of the worms then thin the gravel down to half the amount.

my guess is your slightly over feeding as planeria often arrives when your substrate is dirty..like deano said not enough gravel vacs and left over food doesnt help,,,but i have cleared it without salt simply by feeding less and doing a gravel vac every other day....

also use a magnetic cleaner to scrub them off the sides of the tank and the filter will get them...

I now have no probz with planeria as my Bristlenose young eat them..

But be warned although they are not harmfull to your mature fish they can damage fertile eggs so spawning isnt a great idea why the little buggers are around........

I would use the salt as a last resort. Plecos can be pretty sensitive to it. A little won't hurt them but I try to avoid it if at all possible.

The worms are from overfeeding. I would reduce the amount of gravel and give them a little less food for a while. Cleaning the gravel is also a good plan. The worms won't hurt them and will even provide another food source for them. They should disappear after a little while until you overfeed them again.

well iv added a little bit of salt today gonna remove half the gravel and leave a thin cover over the bottom. typical as both my females are nearly ready to spawn getting nice and fat and looking around the caves. so guess il just have to keep my fingers crossed i can get rid of them before they do as not having any luck at getting them to breed

First time I saw these I nearly cried. Then my filter broke. I cried then :P
Was only because I was scared these evil little worms were going to eat my fish (not to mention the slight fear of parasites I have, not helped my the fact I'd had my arm in my tank for a good hour or so)

A quick google search told me to up the gravel vacs and reduce the food, and I havn't seen any since

if planaria do not worry they are harmless just means you are overfeeding.

If you cut down on the feeding, up the water changes and regular cleaning of gravel and wipedowns for a week or so will cut them down.