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Killing Hydra And Palanria Without Chemical

12K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  NickAu 
#1 ·
I have 7.8 Gallon, heavily planted tank. I have 7 Red cherry shrimp, 3 Crystal Red Shrimp, 4 Amano Shrimp, 1 rabbit snail and 1 Nitrate snail.

My Red cherry shrimp was dying with no reason. I found that they were dying due to molting issue. So I check GH but it was ok. I had seen some baby shrimp before, but later on I could not find them also.

Then suddenly 1 night I found hydra and palanria in my tank. And what I found that whenever my shrimp try to molt this palanria attack. I had seen my red cherry shrimp berried also. Never seen babies.

When I start searching on internet I found that we can use Fenbendazole but I also understand that it can kill snails also and I am against of using any chemical in my tank.

Another group of people telling me that stop feeding so they will go away by starving but at the same time if I don't feed than my shrimp and snail will starve and die.

So now my question is, Can starve hydra and palanaria but not shrimp and snail. My point is I can put food in my tank which hydra and palanaria not eat but shrimp and snail eat. Please give me suggestion for those food.

Another thing can add something to tank like fish or snail which are friendly to shrimp and eat palanaria. I heard spixi snail eat palanaria.

Hope I will get some advice some experts.
 
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#2 ·
While I am not an expert I can tell you what I tried. It is a method I saw and tried with success. The only part that will stink is having to pull plants and critters. So you take out all plants and dip them in the appropriate bleach solution( the exact ratio escapes me). The critters you move to a temp tank. You then bring the temp of the tank to 104 degrees for 2 hours and maintain it there. I then let the temp drop down naturally. You should know this will kill all beneficial bacteria in the tank as well. When I did this method I had zero planaria and hydra and saved all my shrimp without 1 casualty. I have tried Fenbendazole in the past and lost 1 or 2 shrimp. My plants to be honest still have not completely recovered from the bleach dip. Time will tell. Good luck and Good Shrimping!
 
#3 ·
I used Fenbendazole without any problems, but then I don't keep any snails intentionally.

There are also two products on the market, one is No Planaria, the other Planaria Zero. Both can be harmful to snails.


Another option is a small squirt of Hydrogen Peroxide without stabilizers... aka "Food Grade" 3%. This could potentially kill the hydra, but the planaria you would need a trap.



Best way to get rid of them is to remove snails and nuke tank with a product to kill planaria. Otherwise, everything else will take more time because you'll need to remove shrimp and potentially even restart the tank, or keep setting up traps for the planaria and hope you remove all from the tank.


One downside to using a product to get rid of planaria is potentially ammonia spikes, so if you do choose to go that route, keep an eye on parameters.
 
#7 ·
I haven't heard of anyone having issues with No Planaria and snails as long as they removed the snails from the tank prior to dosing, and once the meds are gone, reintroducing the snails. Can't help but wonder if something else might be going?

It's a great looking tank! I was actually speaking with my boss the other day about betta sorority tanks, since she has a female betta.
 
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