How to get rid of Hydra and Planaria in a shrimp tank?
I started a Caridina crossbreeding project last week and I was just about starting to
do the aquascaping on it and I've noticed, on the glass, hydra, which was quite a surprise for me
but unfortunately, I have it in the tank. It's not the first time, it's the second time I'm finding
hydra in my tanks so I've had experience with them already. That was the second time and I've decided
to try a different treatment this time. I will share with you what I did the first time, what went wrong
and how did it go this time. Stick to the end if you want to see a footage about de@d hydra
so when you start treating your tank you know what to expect in the end .
The first time, I started treating my tanks for hydra and planaria, I've used hydrogen peroxide and
unfortunately it killed the beneficial bacteria as well so I've had to start cycling the tank again
and that wasn't great for my shrimps. I had to re-home them in a different tank and I was risking
to spread the hydra to all my tanks in this way. But this time, I've decided to use something called
Panacur C. which is dog and cat dewormer. The active ingredient is the most important here
so when you're choosing the treatment it's not necessary to buy Panacur C specifically. You can
use something called Safeguards or No Planaria or basically, you can buy anything containing
something called Fenbendazole. That's the active ingredient that you need to look for
After intensive research on google, YouTube and any other places you can gather information, I've
decided to go forward and use the dosage which is 1 gram powder per 100 gallons, not litres, gallons,
which is roughly around 400 liters water. So, for my 40 liter, roughly 10 gallon tank, I've used 0.01 gram
of Panacur. I stirred it for about probably half an hour into RO water as the tank will be
for caridina, so I can't use tap water there. If you have neocaridina shrimps, you can
use tank water. Make sure you stir it well as it may take a while to dissolve in the water.
And next, just pour it in the tank. The best is over the filter if you can
so the water can actually disperse it around every single corner of the tank. These are the stages
the hydra went through. The first photo is when was just before treatment and the last several hours
after the hydra was dead on the third day possibly towards the end of the day so i would say it took
about three and a half days to detach from the glass and it disappeared meaning for me it is dead.
It didn't affect any of the pest nails I've got in the tank.
As far as I understood they may die in a couple of weeks time so I need to be careful with
ammonia spike in the future as well. Thank you very much for watching. I hope, I
was helpful for you and please let me know in comments how your treatment went!