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Planaria

1K views 10 replies 10 participants last post by  Monster Fish 
#1 ·
I want to get to the bottom of this discussion.

Has anyone ever truly witnessed a planaria attack a berried shrimp or eat a shrimp? Is there any true scientific evidence that they are detrimental to a shrimp tank? I know there is a ton of speculation that they produce a toxic slime trail, but I've never found any concrete proof that they are a problem.
 
#5 ·
Hi, I have a "bally contaminated" tank with both leech and Planaria.. with some with dots kind of bugs "going" around... My water parameter seem alright (6.4, GH 5 KH0, TDS 220) Here are what I found:

- From the beginning of over 10 small shrimplets, and now I cannot find any!
- I saw a cryscal black dying like... not up side down. It looked like it was "standing" regularly. But after hours, I checked again, the shrimp is sitll in the same postion. That I know it is not all right. I turn it around, and I found 3-4 planaria at its bottom eating it! And in fact, one of its eye ball was gone too on the other side that I could not see. I am not sure if the planaria killed it, or just eating its body after. But I know the tank was not very healthy.... and I will rebuild it by throwing all the substrate and try to quarantine my media and plants...

Overall, I do not have good feeling about the planaria. Did you try the No-Planaria or the "Fenabache"<-- bear with my typo...

Popy
 
#6 ·
Yes, I have one time. A planaria attached itself to a shrimplet that was alive. By the time I reached in the tank to help the shrimplet it was dead.
 
#8 ·
One of the native North American planarians Girardia tigrina has been proven to capture, subdue and eat scuds up to 6mm under laboratory conditions. In my experience this species isn't as robust or aggressive as some other species like the larger D. dorotocephala or Cura foremanii. I keep some of the latter in a small container and they'll eat anything I throw in there from fish food to snail leeches. If they get a chance to latch onto a shrimp they'll eat them no questions asked.
 
#9 ·
All I know is I had three shrimp tanks. My whole colony of blue rilli started dying out fast and hard. It was the only tank with some planaria which became a LOT of planria even though there was no feeding. I moved the last new into a new tank (same water, filter) and they are happy as can be with no deaths. The same as my other tanks. I'm going to lean towards reacting more strongly to fight planaria infestations in the future because of this experience since it was a tough enough lesson.

In my opinion and experience, they cannot co-exists successfully. I would not risk my colony again out of being lazy. By the way, about 4 months later in the currently dark, no filter, no life tank in question there are still many planaria happily oozing about. Sometimes food cut back is not a problem solver.
 
#11 ·
Fenbendazole at 0.1 grams per 10 gallons of water is the correct dosage to kill planaria. Dose a total of three times with 48 hours between each dose. To dissolve the fenbendazole, crush it into a fine powder, mix with a small volume of water, then shake. The particles won't fully dissolve but you will still get the planaria killing effect with this solution. Take caution with nerites since fenbendazole will kill them.

http://www.planetinverts.com/killing_planaria_and_hydra.html
 
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