Possible planarian worms in cherry red shrimp tank...

[Alaris]

I searched for hydra and found a few articles with consistent treatment suggestions.
Hydra

Hydra can be introduced to the aquarium with live foods, snails, driftwood, plants, or water collected from natural freshwater areas. Most hydra in a normal aquarium go unnoticed, but within the confines of a small fry-raising tank, these little pests can be deadly, and can ingest a tankful of newly hatched rainbowfish larvae in less than a week.

Hydra only seems to appear in fry tanks being fed brine shrimp nauplii or similar live foods. They don't seem to appear in fry tanks that are fed primarily a dry or liquid diet. However, once you start feeding large amounts of brine shrimp nauplii, it isn't long before hydra appear, often in enormous numbers.

Dactycid (a product available in Europe) is an effective treatment against gill and body flukes, and other types of internal worms (hookworms and roundworms) including Camallanus cotti, hydra and planaria. The active ingredient is flubendazole.

Flubendazole was mentioned in other articles I found about eradicating hydras. The articles also say to stay away from any treatment with copper (you already know this) and any suggestion of electrically shocking the water (don't know who would be crazy/stupid enough to try this to begin with) and that removing the livestock and heating the water to 40C and sterilizing with chlorine is effective, but not practical (esp for you).

Good luck, Dottie. Hydra are freaky scary.

 

[new2betas]

Could I use that flubendazole with shrimp in the tank safely?

 

[Alaris]

I searched again and found a much more helpful article that is very recent and about shrimp tanks with hydra and planaria worms: Planaria and Hydra Elimination in Shrimp Tanks - Library - Aquatic Plant Central

This person found a substitute for flubendazole: fenbendazole which is a dog de-wormer. Please read this article, it gives directions for treatment and accounts for success in many shrimp breeding tanks.

 

[Purrbox]

Wonderful information Alaris. I think I may need to give fenbendazole a whirl in my aquarium!

 

[new2betas]

Alaris,
Thank you SO MUCH for that article. I am going to go out this week and look for this stuff.

So far, the hydra in my shrimp tank seems under control at the moment and I just did my weekly maintenance on all of my tanks. While I was siphoning water off of my shrimp tank I scraped the sides of the tank some also trying to get any that were still hanging on.

 

[Alaris]

No problem. I'm a googling fool. ^__^

 

[Purrbox]

Well I found the fenbendazole at PetSmart and have dosed 0.1g in my 10 gallon aquarium. We'll see how it goes over the next 24 hours.

 

[new2betas]

Well I found the fenbendazole at PetSmart and have dosed 0.1g in my 10 gallon aquarium. We'll see how it goes over the next 24 hours.

Oh yes...please let us know. I am very curious and hopeful! Fingers crossed!

 

[Purrbox]

Well it's just over 24 hours and the hydras are looking decidedly unhappy. They've withdrawn their tenticles and just look like little stumps at the moment. I only saw 1-2 small planaria trolling around on the glass. The shrimp appear just fine and were scattered about the tank foraging per normal. It'll be interesting to see how the next 24hrs go.

 

[JohnPaul]

Well it's just over 24 hours and the hydras are looking decidedly unhappy. They've withdrawn their tenticles and just look like little stumps at the moment. I only saw 1-2 small planaria trolling around on the glass. The shrimp appear just fine and were scattered about the tank foraging per normal. It'll be interesting to see how the next 24hrs go.

Sounds very good so far!

 

[new2betas]

Wow! How cool is that! Thanks so much, again, Alaris!!

 

[Purrbox]

Well it's been about 72 hours since the initial treatment. The Hydras appear to all be dead, but there are still some planaria trolling the aquarium walls. I've added a second 0.1g dose to try to kill off the remaining planaria.

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

sounds like a winner. if id of seen this earlier id of posted up the cure. i talked to rachel, a girl that is a fresh and saltwater freak. She works at petsmart. She was talking to me about this about 2 weeks ago when i was talking about this annoying stuff sticking to the side of the tank. I took one to her and it was nothing more than just a bacteria string (strange as it sounds). Congrats on the curing process though.

Are you feeding the shrimp to your other fish? or just to have shrimp lol

 

[Alaris]

Well it's been about 72 hours since the initial treatment. The Hydras appear to all be dead, but there are still some planaria trolling the aquarium walls. I've added a second 0.1g dose to try to kill off the remaining planaria.

That's great Joy! I'm glad you were able to get rid of those pesky things.