# Planaria



## keano (2 Jul 2018)

So i noticed these white planaria in my main tank two days ago.

I don't think I over feed the tank only feed it once a week. Ive stopped hoovering the monte carlo carpet as frequently though and just water change with water from the column.

Could this be the reason for the outbreak?

I've just thrownm some of the 'no planaria' in and ive used a pop bottle with pin prick holes in with some bait overnight. This morning bottle had about 5 of them in.

They make my skin crawl.

Also where do they come from? How do they get into the tank as ive not added anythign to my main tank for months.. ?


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## mort (2 Jul 2018)

I've not used no planaria as I have a group of cories that either ate them or ate their food source, but I've seen you need repeat doses to get them all.

As for where they came from, they can hang around in the background without being noticed for quite a while. So I'd guess conditions have become more favourable lately and you've seen the population increase. Ime you can still get them in the most well maintained, clean systems, so don't take it personally.


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## Edvet (2 Jul 2018)

Planarias  can rip themselves in two halves ("fission") and reproduce that way. they can also mate and lay eggs


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## mooncake (2 Jul 2018)

I had a nasty outbreak of planaria about 6 months ago. It's really disheartening when you're sure you aren't overfeeding and even cutting back more and trying to siphon out as many as you can seemingly makes no difference! They're horrible things.

I first tried ESHA NDX, which was useless even after repeat treatments. But no planaria did the trick. I can't remember if I just did the one treatment, or had to use it a couple of times, but the planaria (and by this point there were a lot) were wiped out. Touch wood, there has been no sign of them since.

Good luck!


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## tiger15 (3 Jul 2018)

Will shrimp eat planarium?  If so, just don’t feed the shrimp for a while.


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## zozo (3 Jul 2018)

Some fish eat planaria, they say some Gourami do. I've seen some barbs from the Oreichtys family snack on planaria. But the list of planaria eating fish is very small. It seems they releas a bad tasting toxin when threatened, that's what makes them hard to swallow for most fish and get spit out again. Still planaria doesn't like light, the majority lives in the substrate, so even anything eating them above the substrate never gets them all. Seeing a few in the light means you already have an uncountable number in the substrate.. They can come with new plants and come with feeding froozen foods like bloodworm etc. This food always can contain planaria eggs that survive freezing conditions.

They are meet eaters, maybe even canibalistic and eat their own dead as well. But eat anything that contains proteine. If you don't see them in the light they don't do harm, they do cleanup.. If you see them on the glass can be an unsightly look. But as said, than you have a huge number in the substrate. Than be carefull with using chemicals or what so ever to kill them.. A treat will leave you with a ton of dead worms in the substrate, fauling and rotting away. This can cause ammonia issues leaching from the substrate and maybe some bacterial  issues, bacteria living of rotting meet is nasty stuff. Than after a succesfull planaria genocide it's advisable to do a lot of extra water changes for quite some time. Using a vacuum bell syphon to give the substrate a good clean will definitively help.

I failed doing this after my first Shrimp safe No Planaria experience.. All planaria dead, but 3 weeks later all 15 Amono shrimps dead too. They all died with poissoning symptoms. Not from the No Planaria, most likely the toxins leaching from all the dead stuff in the substrate..

Lesson learned..  And an expensive one over € 40 shrimps down the drain..


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## keano (3 Jul 2018)

I'm hoping i caught them early. 

I only saw them when id turn the light on and catch them on the glass when it was dark. I've just done second days dose of no planaria and ive had my water bottle trap catch a few. Ill treat again today which will be the third of three treatments then ill give the substrate a good hoover.


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## PBM3000 (3 Jul 2018)

Definitely planaria - not just detritus thingies?


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## keano (4 Jul 2018)

PBM3000 said:


> Definitely planaria - not just detritus thingies?



There 'were' a white little worm with a sprearhead shaped head..


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## The Accidental Aquascaper (19 Apr 2019)

Crap, thinks I got me a few Planaria worms.

I'm not too bothered as it's just in the mini tank that hasn't been scaped yet.
However, I will be taking some shrimp from this tank. Is there a risk of the worms being carried across on the shrimps?


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## Chuck Turtleman (19 Apr 2019)

"On" the shrimp themselves, probably not. My concern would be in the shipping water. FWIW, Clea snails (assassin) will make pretty quick work of them.


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## The Accidental Aquascaper (19 Apr 2019)

Chuck Turtleman said:


> Clea snails (assassin) will make pretty quick work of them.



Good to know, thanks.


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## zozo (20 Apr 2019)

Be carefull with No Planaria and snails.. Not all take it very well, yet not fully documented what snails takes it and what not... Personal experience, Pond snail and Ramshorn are not affected. But Apple snail, Nerite and MTS go completely lethargic and finaly die probaly form starvation, no idea if its a painfull death.


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## The Accidental Aquascaper (20 Apr 2019)

zozo said:


> Be carefull with No Planaria and snails.. Not all take it very well, yet not fully documented what snails takes it and what not... Personal experience, Pond snail and Ramshorn are not affected. But Apple snail, Nerite and MTS go completely lethargic and finaly die probaly form starvation, no idea if its a painfull death.



I’ve got trumpet snails in there and they’re fine...at the moment. 

Was it a typo when you said “No Planaria and snails”?

I’ll be rescaping this tank, so it’s not a concern, just don’t want to make the same mistake again n the larger tank.


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## Aqua sobriquet (20 Apr 2019)

I had a 50 gallon aquarium for many years and never had anything like that. Move on several house moves later and I set up a 35 Litre Nano and got planaria in it. Everything I tried failed so I had to strip the tank down in the end. Horrible looking things. There’s an article in the spring PFK about them, they can attack and eat Shrimps apparently.


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## Aqua sobriquet (20 Apr 2019)

Good article I read a while back.

https://fishlab.com/planaria/


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## zozo (20 Apr 2019)

The Accidental Aquascaper said:


> Was it a typo when you said “No Planaria and snails”?



No sorry i meant this..

https://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/genchem-no-planaria-50g-p-5606.html


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## zozo (20 Apr 2019)

Aqua sobriquet said:


> they can attack and eat Shrimps apparently.



I'm not 100% sure but i think i can second this.. Lately i had a planaria infestation in a tank running for 4 years. First i noticed a decline in the cherry shrimp population goimg from maybe a 100 to a 2 dozen.. Later i noticed quite some Planaria, saw them crawling all over the place even at day time. And that's a sign it is definitively an infestation. Used No-Planaria and haven't seen any planaria anymore for months now and shrimp population is rising again.


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## sciencefiction (20 Apr 2019)

I could be wrong but I was under the impression that praziquantel as in Fluke Solve will kill the planaria as well, as they're a form of flat worm...Fluke solve is safe for all other critters like shrimp and snails and will de-worm the fish's as a bonus.


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## zozo (20 Apr 2019)

sciencefiction said:


> I could be wrong but I was under the impression that praziquantel as in Fluke Solve will kill the planaria as well, as they're a form of flat worm...Fluke solve is safe for all other critters like shrimp and snails and will de-worm the fish's as a bonus.



I've tried, it doesn't. Tho must say not the recomended dosage for ordinary flukes.. Also tried a much higher dosage with planaria in a seperate container. That seemed to work. But it exceeded the normal dosage rather a lot..

I'm not willing to experiment with such high dosage against planaria with other life stock..

Can't find any data on the highest and safest prazi dosage possible..


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## sciencefiction (20 Apr 2019)

zozo said:


> Can't find any data on the highest and safest prazi dosage possible..



Personally,I'd be more comfortable overdosing prazi than dosing the No planaria stuff. 
What dose did you try on the separate container that was effective?


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## zozo (21 Apr 2019)

sciencefiction said:


> Personally,I'd be more comfortable overdosing prazi than dosing the No planaria stuff.
> What dose did you try on the separate container that was effective?



Once asked Dr. Fiona Mc D. if Prazi would be effective, she said in theory it should, alfter all they are flat worms. Thus i tried.. Only know the recomended dosage on the package does not. Not even the 14 day treatment. Tho it seems to make them less active but they definitively survive it. I never replied this back to her to talk about dossage.

I didn't make it a long term experiment to find the proper dose.. I just once did try out of curiousity a pinch fluke solve in a glass of water with planaria. It looked like it killed it about instantly.. In comparance in volumes it was rather a huge overdose. I have absolutely no knowledge about it also no idea if overdosing Prazi affects snails etc.

No-Planaria does kill some snails.. And few years back i had a negative experience with Amano shrimps.. I'm not sure if it was no-plalanaria causing it or all dead planaria in the substrate. But shortly after all Amano shrimp showed poisoning symptoms, coloring Amber and go Spastic and finaly die. Cherry shrimp are yet not affected.

For now i decided to stop feeding froozen foods as best alternative. This seems to be the most obvious cause to me.. Since i only experienced planaria infestations in tanks were i did regularly feed froozen bloodworms.

.


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## Konsa (21 Apr 2019)

Hi
I found Panacur very effective for removing Planaria and hydra from my snail farm tank.I had a massive planaria infestation in there and no snail or shrimp casualties.
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/red-ramshorn-breeding-issues.49416/
Regards Konsa


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## dw1305 (21 Apr 2019)

Hi all,





Konsa said:


> Hi
> I found Panacur very effective for removing Planaria and hydra from my snail farm tank.I had a massive planaria infestation in there and no snail or shrimp casualties.https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/red-ramshorn-breeding-issues.49416/
> Regards Konsa


I've used <"Panacur as well"> without any snail or crustacean deaths.

cheers Darrel


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## Aqua sobriquet (21 Apr 2019)

I tried Panacur and it didn’t work. How long is it supposed to take?


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## Sarpijk (21 Apr 2019)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,I've used <"Panacur as well"> without any snail or crustacean deaths.
> 
> cheers Darrel


I have two horned Nerites which I dearly love for their algae eliminating skills. I would like to a tank that I treated with panacur about three months ago. Is it safe to reintroduce them now?


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## dw1305 (21 Apr 2019)

Hi all, 





Aqua sobriquet said:


> I tried Panacur and it didn’t work.


Are you sure your <"Flatworms aren't Leeches?"> Leeches are Annelids and they aren't effected by Panacur. The Leeches aren't fish feeding ones, they behave very similarily to Flatworms. The easiest way of telling them apart is via movement, Leeches loop and Flatworms glide.





Aqua sobriquet said:


> How long is it supposed to take?


You get a pretty much instant effect on Hydra, Planaria takes a bit longer. 





Sarpijk said:


> I have two horned Nerites which I dearly love for their algae eliminating skills.


My water is hard enough, so I've never tried Nerites, hopefully some-one else will know.

cheers Darrel


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## Aqua sobriquet (21 Apr 2019)

I definitely had Panaria. I even upped the dosage but they were still there a few days later.


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## sciencefiction (21 Apr 2019)

Fenbendazole(Panacur) can have adverse effect on certain species of aquarium fish when dissolved in water.

I think what one uses all depends on what fish and other critters are in the tank.

Kusuri Wormer plus(FLUbendazole) is very safe on any fish and it's effect on planaria is similar to that of Fenbendazole. 
Flubendazole however, will kill the snails, at least in the doses I did... I am surprised that Fenbendazole does not kill snails...Perhaps, again, it's all about the dosage...

I was reading somewhere that the difference between a poison, toxin and a cure is in the dosage...


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## HiNtZ (5 May 2019)

I just bought "no planaria" - I should have some left after treatment if you fancy going halves?


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## HiNtZ (9 May 2019)

It came today - just done a dose, will let you know how it goes.


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## Onoma1 (21 Jan 2020)

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, however, I wondered if I should use no planaria or seachem paraguard to get rid of them? I noticed (to my horror) a couple of planaria in one tank and small one has appeared in my other tank. I understand that where there is one out on the tank there will be hundreds in the substrate. I have shrimp in both tanks.


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