what is this?

[hippy guy]

Planted tank with shrimps, betta, kuhlis, and snails.
Pic is hard to see, but its a small white tube, with super small "fingers" that are coming off. Upon poking, the fingers contracted..what the heck is this??

 

[hippy guy]

Here's the pic. Like I said, iduno what it is..but there on my willow moss, and d. Hairgrass..should I be worried??

 

[hippy guy]

..ok so further reasing shows its a hydra..how'd it get in there...do I need them out?

 

[Batt4Christ]

Yep- hydra. I have had a couple in the last few months. I think I picked mine up when I got some goodies at the lfs. They are fascinating, but can kill and even consume baby fish.

 

[hippy guy]

Well I have no baby fish, but I do want to breed my cherry shrimp...should I get rid of these?

 

[jetajockey]

I think they can kill anything that they can get ahold of, so shrimplets would be subject as well. I have had them in my fry tanks in the past, they seem to pop up when doing lots of BBS feeding. A sprinkle of fenbendazole wiped them out in less than 24 hours, never affected my shrimp/snails/fry in the tank, although I've read that it can hurt apple snails.

 

[hippy guy]

I might have to get that stuff then. They seem cool, but there already enough a problem I've noticed them, and there mostly on java fern, willow, ande grass, which is where my shrimp babies would hide anyways... where can I get. That stuff?

 

[hippy guy]

Ah worm killer for dogs...got it
So my girlfriend still has planaria in her tank..this would proly kill them as well I guess..

 

[jetajockey]

Yeah I've used it to treat both hydra and planaria.

I've not had hydra in my main shrimp tank but I did have planaria once, since there are no carnivorous fish in there they just went wild.

I added a sprinkle of fenbendazole, wait 24 hours, 50% wc, wait 24hrs, another 50% wc.

 

[hippy guy]

Word, I may try this... hydra have stinging cells....can they sting me?

 

[jetajockey]

Can't say I've ever touched one, probably wouldn't do a lot though since they are tiny. I've heard that larger fish will eat them.

 

[hippy guy]

My betta won't touch em, the kuhlis don't notice em... they look cool though, I feel like on of themk touched me last night during a pwc, and my hand is kinda red...coulda just been a bug bite though...

 

[jeffp]

it's very unlikely, probably impossible for a hydra to sting a human. their stinging cells wouldn't be able to penetrate our skin. do be careful when removing it though, since pieces of a hydra can grow into a whole other hydra. removing it in one piece would be the safest bet

 

[hippy guy]

Lol well crap, I did a water change, I bet a lot of them broke up in the splashing

 

[hippy guy]

My tests are all zero, what could they be living on? Also some look greenish..are these photosynthetic? Maybe a blackout would help

 

[Sparky74]

From Wiki:
Hydra (genus) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some species of Hydra exist in a mutual relationship with various types of unicellular algae. The algae are protected from predators by the Hydra and, in return, photosynthetic products from the algae are beneficial as a food source to the Hydra.

Maybe algae?

 

[hippy guy]

I read somthing like this elsewhere at work today..if so, that's almost a really cool organism, aside from it being a potential threat to baby fish..

 

[hippy guy]

So after some reading, I've decided 0.1 gram(have an accuate scale) of fenbendazol (prolly spelled it wrong haha) and am going to powder it and squirt directly with a syringe. Since I'm movin in 72 hours, ill need a few days before this can be done, but ill start a threat when I get around to it. It seems good with all shrimp, including the smaller species.. I wana read up and make sure the vampire shrimp is ok with it, although I never find anything on them.. the closest was that crayfish were cool with it