[HappySalamander]

Hi Everyone,

I have been battling a planaria infestation in my tank for quite a while now and I am going the fenbendazole route to hopefully get rid of them. I have moved my nerite snails to another planted tank as I have been using Planaria Zero to treat the planaria infestation (without much progress!). From my understanding, fenbendazole will stay in the substrate for a while, and returning the nerite snails may not be an option. With fenbendazole still in the substrate, what are some alternatives to Nerite snails that will help control algae on the glass and hardscape? The Nerites were doing an amazing job in the tank with zero glass scraping/rock maintenance needed. The tank is starting to look a little neglected without them :frown2:

Current Tank set up

25 + Red Cherry/Fire Red shrimp
5 Amanos
9 Gallon Planted tank

Thank you for the advice!

 

[Preeths]

Use an algae scraper.

 

[Zoidburg]

If you used Planaria Zero to get rid of planaria.... Are you sure you don't have rhabdocoela flatworms?!?!?!?!?


It sounds like you might be treating your tank unnecessarily if you may have rhabdos' instead... since they may not be effected by treatments for planaria. In which case, I would recommend to stop treatment.

 

[HappySalamander]

If you used Planaria Zero to get rid of planaria.... Are you sure you don't have rhabdocoela flatworms?!?!?!?!?


It sounds like you might be treating your tank unnecessarily if you may have rhabdos' instead... since they may not be effected by treatments for planaria. In which case, I would recommend to stop treatment.

Thank you for the advice! I have yet to see any of the large planaria that existed in the tank before treating Planaria Zero, however, there seems to be juveniles still swimming around! I find it more difficult to differentiate rhabdocoela flatworms and planaria when they are that small. The reason I suspect planaria is that I noticed 2 of my shrimp dead with the worms inside them (granted this was a new shipment of shrimp, so the cause of death may have not been the worms themselves). Would rhabdocoela flatworms enter and eat a dead shrimp? My shrimp population was destroyed due to the planaria, so seeing worms inside dead shrimp is giving me flashbacks!

 

[mfgann]

I keep a couple of ottos in with my RCS and Tangerine Tigers. They seem to be happy in there.

 

[Zoidburg]

Rhabdo's diet is basically the same as shrimp... biofilm and dead and decaying matter... so if you come across a dead shrimp, then yes, other shrimp and even rhabdos will consume them.

You said the worms are swimming? Could this be detritus worms? These would swim like a snake. Or maybe nematodes? Those squiggle in the water column.