more planaria questions

[Meredith]

I have been doing water changes, cleaned out the filter,vac-ing the gravel with every water change, I didn' t put any food in the tank yesterday at all, fed my shrimp 1 flake today. These pesky planaria aren't going away. aside from chemicals in the tank is there anything I am missing? Will turning up the heat in my tank speed along their demise?(it only goes up to 82) or can I freeze them out, turn off the heater completely? Any natural substance that they hate? A special aquarium god I can pray to? I will try anything!

 

[Mofo2713]

I had the same problem 2 days ago...I did a 25% water change and scrubbed the walls with a terry cloth and an algae scrubber. I also did a small vaccum on the gravel. Tank Girl told me that you can go up to 2 weeks without feeding your fish but recommended that I only go 4-5 days as the planaria are probably caused from overfeeding. Going on my 2nd day without feeding my fish and they appear to not be growing anymore. There are a few that are still left by the gravel bottom as I could not reach them with the cloth or scrubber. Just try not feeding them for a few days and scrub the walls down. HTH...

 

[Meredith]

I cant actually see any on the gravel. they are too small. but there is no food in there (that I can see) and they wont go away. I even took out the decorations and vac-ed under them. I will hopefully be moving my fish back into the tank tomorrow, perhaps my angel fish will eat them. It is always looking for stuff to eat!

 

[deeni0z]

I didn't change anything with my tank when I had planaria. I always vacced my gravel once per week with my weekly water change and they just went away after a few days.

 

[glasstapper]

i fixed mine by doin just what your doin keep on keepin on

 

[Meredith]

WELL, turning the heater off doesn't work. when I did a water change day before yesterday, I forgot to plug the heater back in. OOPS. I stuck my hand in the tank to give my shrimps a flake of food, and it was COLD. It was actually only 70. But now I can rule that option out.

 

[Meredith]

I was searching around for planaria removal and I found this suggestion... "Set out bait like meat in a mesh bag. Remove the bait a few hours after the lights go out on the tank. It should be covered with planaria. Throw away and repeat until the population goes down." MEAT?? like what? steak?? RAW meat?? this sounds fishy to me. anyone else?

 

[TankGirl]

I would not want to put meat in my tank - planaria is not such a horrible problem that it warrants that kind of thing, to me, and I agree completely that this will go away and you should just keep on like you've been. Cooler water is not going to help as much as warmer water, like up to 86F. But even if you don't treat it with high temps, cutting feedings way back and frequent gravel vacs/water changes WILL help, and they will go away. Just a little patience and it'll be over.

They are not harmful, really, just unsightly, so I would not do anything that would put the tank/biofilter/fish at risk to handle them.