I think I have hydra growing in my tank

[hisc1ay]

I don't know where they came from, but this morning I was lookin at one of my plants when I saw some little tiny waving thing underneath attached to a stone. Upon closer observation, I saw many more...I dare say 5 or 6 of them, mainly around one plant, but also another about 8 inches away. They're little white tuby things with 4 or 5 tentacles hanging off of them. One or two of them had another growing off of it. I did a little searching and it seems my suspicion is correct. The only thing I'm worried about is if they're dangerous. If they're not, they'd be neat to keep in there for something fun to look at.

If I put a shrimp in there, would he eat them?

-j

 

[hisc1ay]

No one knows?!

The ghost shrimp didn't eat them. Some are getting bigger, and they are getting more abundant. They're still tiny though.

-j

 

[targaboy78]

Hi hisc1ay,

You wrote;

The only thing I'm worried about is if they're dangerous. If they're not, they'd be neat to keep in there for something fun to look at.

I did a litle research and found this site;
http://www.notcatfish.com/health/pests.htm

Hydra, small white worms with feathery tentacles, are introduced by live foods or on plants and like snails are not harmful to adult fish. Hydra do however, thrive on fish eggs and trap fry with their tentacles and thus must be eliminated from the breeding aquarium.

Hydra can only survive on live food so they can easily be controlled by changing to a diet of flake. If your fish cannot cope with this, a careful dose of 0.5ppm Copper Sulphate will do the trick. Copper Sulphate is toxic to fish so this treatment must be a last resort and used with extreme cation. Bear in mind also that some water conditioners have a high metal ion binding capacity and may render a Copper Sulphate treatment useless. Alternatively, again assuming that you fish can cope, a raise in temperature to 108°F for four hours will kill Hydra.

I did a GOOGLE search on hydra aquarium and it resulted in 2960 pages.

Here's another; http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Hydra.htm

Any aquarists who feed copious amounts of live brine shrimp nauplii will eventually find their tanks carpeted with hydra.

Creepy;

Hydra are equipped with poison-containing structures in the ectodermal layer called nematocysts, the most complex cellular organs in the animal kingdom. Judging from its incredible potency and speed of paralysis and death, the poison is believed to be a nerve toxin. They have four different types of nematocysts, some stinging and paralysing the prey, whilst others discharge threads which coil round the prey and hold it. Small animals paralysed by the stinging cells are brought to the digestive centre by the tentacles and devoured. The mouth of the hydra is located at the centre of the tentacles. The body is hollow and the inner layer of cells digests the food by engulfing it. With prey almost as large as itself, the hydra stretches so thin in getting its digestive gut around it that the prey animal appears to be covered with a thin transparent film; only the tentacles tell you that you are looking at a hydra, although they generally keep their tentacles coiled up. A hydra that has recently fed will be shorter and more rounded than one that is hungry.

I hope this helps.

 

[ClownLoach]

*Consults her handy Tropical Fish Hobbyist("I saw somthin bout hydras in the Dec. issue!")*

"This common micropredator often infests to tanks of aquarists who use
newly hatched brine shrimp."
*I dun like the sound of the word micropreditor...*

"This fry eating oppertunistic freshwater invertabrae is very unwelcome."
*Uh oh..*

"Hydra will kill and eat young fry"
*Ops there goes, another little fish... ops there goes, another little fish yeah!*

"Natural controllers of hydra include Blue Gouramis, Bettas, and several cichlids."
*AHHHH! The blue gourami is comin to get me! Noooo don't eat me!!!*

Hahahahaha
I hope I have done more than just amuse you with my stupid comments.
Good luck (yer gonna need it!)
Holly

 

[hisc1ay]

Hmm...don't use live food at all...so I still have no idea how they're living.

But I'm gonna stick my betta in there and see what happens...

Thanks! That's about what I found out too. I was curious if anyone had experience with them / getting rid of them before.

-j

 

[ClownLoach]

"Journal entry:
December 31, 2002
Ugly the hydra

Help!
It's a massacre! We have been living in a tank for a long time. We came in on the live plants. Well, the owner has put up with us... until now. Ahhhh there goes my buddy bob! It's so sad... That betta is just eatin us all... ahhh auntie noooooo.... it's comin my way... ahhhh nooooooo no please noooo GULP."
Here there are a few spots of hydra blood.

Okay that was just weird...
Holly

[/i]

 

[hisc1ay]

what are you smoking?!

-j