# Other Aquarium Forums > Fish Care, Nutrition and Water Management >  Very tiny white mites crawling on aquarium wall and fish bo

## pulp2000

Hi all

I just found out that my tank is crawling with very small white mites. at first thought its just small particles but when i off all my pumps, the white particles is still crawling all over the aquarium wall. Worse still i notice them moving on the fish body!!! 

No wonder the fish keep scratching its body using its pectoral fins, suddenly twitching its body while swimming and occasionally rubbing its body against my pump. Its appetite drop slightly 3 days back but pick up again these few dayz.

Water params are as follows:
ammonia ~ 0
nitrite ~ 0
ph ~ 7.2

I need advice urgently. Very worried that the condition might go out of hand. Should i administer any treatment like antibiotics?

Look forward to any bro sharing advice/comments.

Thanks!!!

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## OUTLAW

eh.. maybe this will help TEMPORARILY..

maybe u cld just use a sponge or an algae scrapper to scrape them off for the moment..

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## DEA

arr..
antibiotics does ZIP against parasites
secondly, these don't look like parasites
they're more like scavengers that result from overfeeding, new tank setup etc
i presume your tank is recently setup?
anyway, unless your fish show visible signs of distress like clamped fins, hard breathing, it's safe to assume the white dots are harmless

just do water changes and suck them out as much as you can
they'll go away
even better, get some pretty small fish you would want to keep, they'll eat those

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## Nowornever

Use Ocean Free's Super Copper Free. I notice that even worms die if immerse for just 1 day. Anyway, some aquarium scavengers can multiply rapidly under favourable conditions (ie. lots of detritis on the tank bottom to feed on) and can then cluster onto the bodies of the fish. Sometimes, this affects the fish negatively, esp when they congregate in large numbers on the fish = itch n irritation. Excessive slime will also be produced. If this is the case, time to clean/vacuum the tank... Hope it helps.

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## DEA

> ----------------
> On 5/22/2003 3:44:35 PM 
> 
> Use Ocean Free's Super Copper Free. I notice that even worms die if immerse for just 1 day. 
> ----------------


many people have noticed this while using ocean free products
the problem is, everything in the tank dies, not just the parasites
use with caution

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## PohSan

Yes. I saw it in my tank also. One of the advice from Petmart is because my water is too &amp;quot;nutrition&amp;quot; due to my weekly dosage of plant fertilizer and uneaten food. To solve this, I do a more frequent water change and interval the interval of plant fertilizer supply from 1 week to about 10 days. Hope this help.

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## zakuII

Hi all  :Smile:  I'm new to this hobby.
I also discovered hundreds of tiny white worms crawling all over the glass panels of my 2 weeks old tank.
Do frequent water changes enough to get rid of them? Is there no requirement for any medications to be added? 
My tank currently do not hav any fishes in it as i'm trying to let the plants grow 1st :P. Do addition of fish now help in eating the worms or will it only cause harm to the fishes?

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## geoffrey

> ----------------
> On 10/7/2003 1:13:46 AM 
> 
> Hi all  I'm new to this hobby.
> I also discovered hundreds of tiny white worms crawling all over the glass panels of my 2 weeks old tank.
> Do frequent water changes enough to get rid of them? Is there no requirement for any medications to be added? 
> My tank currently do not hav any fishes in it as i'm trying to let the plants grow 1st :P. Do addition of fish now help in eating the worms or will it only cause harm to the fishes? 
> ----------------


Frequent water change will not help. It's a teething problem in some tanks and no medication is needed. Yes, adding a few hungry fishes will help clear them for you, at the same time help with the N-cycle.

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