Although spionid worms are harmless to your aquarium, they are extremely common with many people within the fish keeping hobby considering them to be unsightly and look for ways to remove them from their tank.
Every single month we see people reaching out and asking for various ways to remove spionid worms from their tank with the minimum amount of effort as manually removing them can take a large amount of time.
Now, before we go any further, we just want to say that spionid worms can actually benefit your aquarium depending on the type of aquarium you keep.
They are filter feeders and great for taking out impurities within your water while also being able to reduce the growth of algae in some situations due to eating the algae spores floating around in the water.
Still, many people within the fish keeping hobby will have other methods to control this and will want to remove the spionid worms from their tank as quickly as possible as they don’t like the look of them in their display tanks.
There are a number of ways that you are able to remove spionid worms with some of the methods that we see people talking about on social media often not being ideal to safely remove spionid worms from an aquarium.
This is why we have decided to publish our own article going over the topic to try and help as many of our readers as possible who have a spionid worm breakout in their tank
How To Get Rid Of Spionid Worms!
Many people will use a gravel vacuum to remove the spionid worms in their tank during tank maintenance with this probably being the most common way to remove the worms from your aquarium.
Some people will add tank mates to the aquarium such as coral banded shrimp that will eat spionid worms in large amounts too with this also being a popular way to remove spionid worms from an aquarium.
As the majority of people need to use a gravel vacuum on their tank substrate at least once a week for normal tank maintenance, this is usually the most common method of removing spionid worms from an aquarium.
That said, it usually doesn’t remove all of the spionid worms and their rapid reproduction rate will often result in their population being able to sustain itself in your aquarium almost indefinitely.
This is why it is becoming increasingly popular to use a gravel vacuum to try and remove the majority of the spionid worms and then adding something like some coral banded shrimp to the tank to try and finish off any spionid worms that remain.
This has proven to be one of the better strategies for removing spionid worms in your fish tank though with many people choosing to use it and reporting excellent results.
What Eats Spionid Worms?
The two main tank additions that will eat large amounts of spionid worms in an aquarium are coral banded shrimp and various types of wrasse.
The coral banded shrimp are the most popular option but they don’t eat as many spionid worms as something like six line wrasse or lunare wrasse but wrasse are not suitable for all aquariums so you have to factor that in too.
There are some other fish and shrimp options that will eat spionid worms in your fish tank but they tend to prefer other food sources if possible so are not recommended if you are looking for something just to eat the spionid worm population in your tank.
The majority of our readers will probably be able to add coral banded shrimp to their aquarium without running into problems though and their lower price tag makes them a great addition.
If you are able to integrate six line wrasse or lunare wrasse to your tank then they will usually consume enough spionid worms to totally rid your tank of them without you even having to gravel vacuum the tank to help them.
If you do look to take the wrasse option then be sure to research the specific species of wrasse you are considering to ensure that they are able to live in your aquarium without issue.
Are Spionid Worms Bad?
Spionid worms are generally harmless and pose no risk or threat to your fish in your aquarium with spionid worms often being able to help improve water conditions due to being filter feeds.
Unfortunately, they are a little unsightly so many people choose to remove spionid worms from their tanks due to feeling that they detract from the overall look of the tank.
If you do have spionid worms in your breeding tank or a none display tank where you don’t really care about its aesthetic look, you can consider just leaving the spionid worm population to do their thing.
In some situations, they can actually improve your water quality and reduce the amount of tank maintenance that is required for the tank that they are in.
In some very rare situations, we have seen people intentionally add spionid worms to their aquarium to help deal with specific problems but the vast majority of our readers will never find themselves in this situation.
Due to how much of a pain it is to completely remove the spionid worm population from your tank, we would never recommend that you intentionally add them to an aquarium either.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over how to remove spionid worms from your fish tank to an end. We know that a large number of people are having problems with removing or controlling their spionid worm population right now so we hope that we have been able to help you. Unfortunately, even if you do everything perfectly, spionid worms can accidentally be added to an aquarium via new live plants, substrate, decorations or fish so they can be a common issue.
