hydra infestation

[secretagent]

I have recently setup a 55g planted tank. Unfortunatly some of my new plants must have some hydras on it because now my glass has millions of them on it. I did a search on this site and saw that people had good results with Bausmans fish tonic. Is this readily avaliable? I also saw that people used fluke tabs and quick cure. Copper is out because I threw in a handful of ghost shrimp to cycle my tank (no fish yet) I also want to make sure none of these medications will harm my plants. Help!!
Chris

 

[TankGirl]

Basically any chemical that is toxic to hydra are going to be toxic to invertebrates. High temps and salt might work, but if the tank has not cycled yet I would be surprised if the hydra would survive a cycle - remarkably they require pretty clean water. You might just consider proceeding with the cycle and see if that does the trick.

That said, a handful of ghost shrimp are not really going to provide enough waste to adequately cycle a 55gal tank. You would need a legion of them. Whatever bacteria you grow will support biomass equal to the ghost shrimp you have. I'd pop the ghost shrimps into a quarrantine tank, or return them, then do a fishless cycle with 5ppm ammonia, which would kill the hydra and cycle the tank for you in about 4-6 weeks.

 

[fish_4_all]

I am adding informaiton as I find it one the web.

3 spot or pearl groumis, nickel sized mystery snails, iron, heat your tank to 60 degrees celcius for 6 minutes. Lots of things out there. Most of them say the medications simply do not work unless they have adequate amounts or iron in them.

Personally, I would try to find something that will eat them like the mystery snails or some fish that likes them. If heat does the trick, I would even try a heat source touching the glass right where they attatch to the glass to kill them. Wouldn't heat the entire tank too much that way.

 

[krap101]

rapid heating=breaking glass.

 

[PsiPro]

It wont have to be rapid, just needs to get there, but I agree that may not be a great idea... If you dont' have anything in the tank why not take the plants out, drain the tank and let them die, they deal with the plants in a smaller tank since it will be easier?

 

[TankGirl]

Or just cycle the tank....

 

[rich311k]

I am with TankGirl. Cycle the tank. No need to get creative with something that may not turn out to be a problem

 

[secretagent]

Cycling the tank sounds like a good idea. I really thought that all the plants I added that had came out of tanks with fish in them would have had enough bacteria to seed my substrate(eco complete). Can someone tell me about the fishless cycling method. Ive always used a few fish to do it.
Chris

 

[rich311k]

http://aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=15

Here is the article about how to do it. Ignore the saltwater part. You can substitute ammoina for the shrimp as well. Ace hardware sells a brand or pure ammonia, no detergents etc.

Just add 5ppm to the tank. Check your levels everyday and keep the ammonia at 5. Once you see nitrites dose half the amount of ammonia.

 

[krap101]

wal mart sells one 2. its called clear ammonia.

 

[TankGirl]

Plants can help you run a "silent" cycle but usually you need to have the plants established in a nutrient rich substrate with good lighting and CO2 injection for this to happen properly. They don't actually seed the tank, but rather uptake the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate so that levels do not rise in the water column.

Fishless cycling will for sure take care of your hydra - they will not be able to tolerate it.