Help! Hydra in my Sulawesi Cardinal tank!

[mmoss]

Hey Guys, I've had a sulawesi tank setup for about a month now. I had to go away for a memorial/funeral this past weekend, and when I got back I noticed a single hydra hanging out on a rock. I removed the rock, and didn't see any other critters. This afternoon I came home from work to find the sides of the tank nearly covered in hydra (OK, maybe not covered, but every wall has them spaced a couple inches apart). I've had them in my endler tank last year and the problem cleared up all on its own.

Right now I've got several Sulawesi Rabbit Snails and the cardinal shrimp. There's some lace-leaf java fern (the rabbit snails love to eat it), and the substrate is a mix of sand/rock. I don't really feed the shrimp, they've seemed pretty happy just eating algae and picking at some java moss.

I'm really concerned about loosing the shrimp. I've done a quick search in the forums, and found this post (http://plantedtank.net/forums/showth...ighlight=hydra) but I'm worried about hurting the shrimp/snails. Should I simply put the snails in another tank while I treat the shrimp, and if so, does anyone have any suggestions on how long to wait after treatment/water changes to put the snails back?

Current Parameters:

• Temp: ~81 F
• Ammonia: 0
• Nitrite: 0
• Nitrate: 0
• Ph: 8

[Soothing Shrimp]

You can buy this from Liam and he includes directions. Good stuff! But be careful of dosage. You could even dose a little less if concerned, but it has worked well for me and my shrimp. Can't answer as far as snails though.

[reefdive]

I had some hydra pop up in 1 tank . You already have what it takes to get rid of them . Endlers . I added 4 or 5 endlers and they cleaned them right up . Don't feed the endlers much . A small group like that of endlers is also timid and while they could eat a baby shrimp they will not attack the adults . Stay away from hybrid endlers though or mixed blood ones as they will harrass them . I sill have them with the Shrimp and there were 100 plus tiny ones in there when the hydra popped up I did clean the glass removing what hydra I could manually

[mmoss]

@Soothing Shrimp I'm pretty new around here, are you referring to Panacure/fenbendazole?

@reefdive Thanks for the advice, I assumed the endlers ate them, but was hesitant since my cardinals are still less than an inch.

For now I'll give the natural cure a shot. I'm setting up a small quarantine tank, where I'll drop the shrimp while I let the endlers have at the hydra.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Yepper. Cost is like $3. Very cheap. http://www.aquarliamshop.com/supplem...anacur-1-gram/

[randyl]

I'm all for nature ways of dealing with issues in shrimp tanks, but for hydras and planaria, I won't think twice before using fenbendazole/panacur. I have overdosed/underdosed and never had any issue with the shrimps in tanks, and always got rid of the pest. To be honest, I don't even do large water change after 3 days, I stick with my regular WC schedule (10% every 10 to 14 days) after dosing. But, this is just my experience, follow the instructions if you have not used it to be safe.

[mmoss]

@randyl Do you have any suggestions around how long to wait after treatement/water changes before I'd want to reintroduce my rabbit snails if I went the fenbendazole route?

EDIT: I'm guessing I could just try reintroducing a couple of pond snails before I try the rabbit snails.

[Chrisinator]

That's the tricky part about shrimp tanks, everything is so small that it takes close inspections to actually see minor infestations! SCARY!

[Jadenlea]

Originally Posted by mmoss

@randyl Do you have any suggestions around how long to wait after treatement/water changes before I'd want to reintroduce my rabbit snails if I went the fenbendazole route?

EDIT: I'm guessing I could just try reintroducing a couple of pond snails before I try the rabbit snails.

Common thought it change water after 3 days but if you have a bad infestation, I would change it after 24 hours due to ammonia spikes from dead worms.

Panacur is not active in your water after 24 hours so you are not removing the medication.

If you scroll down on this page there is a good article about treating planaria with panacur http://www.planetinverts.com/killing...and_hydra.html

[Kunsthure]

Where do hydra come from? How can they just appear in a tank?

-Lisa

[randyl]

Originally Posted by mmoss

@randyl Do you have any suggestions around how long to wait after treatement/water changes before I'd want to reintroduce my rabbit snails if I went the fenbendazole route?

EDIT: I'm guessing I could just try reintroducing a couple of pond snails before I try the rabbit snails.

See what Jadenlea said. If you get a NH3 spike then for sure do WC, for hydra it's probably not a big problem, more likely for planaria.

I don't have many snails that I care about in my shrimp tanks but I haven't noticed any population decline after dose. However, I heard it will kill nerties but I don't have any.

@Kunsthure, if you figure out, let me know. They often come with new substrate/DW/plants/shrimps I would think. So now I treat any new plants I get in fenbendazole for 3 days before introducing them to my tank and since then I have much less hydra issues.