# Which small fish



## Aqua sobriquet (10 Jun 2012)

Is shrimp friendly and will eat planaria?


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## sr20det (10 Jun 2012)

Aqua sobriquet said:
			
		

> Is shrimp friendly and will eat planaria?



http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/boraras-brigittae/

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/boraras-micros/

Way too small to bother shrimp especially the micros I would have thought.


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## Aqua sobriquet (10 Jun 2012)

Wow, they look nice. Thanks very much for the links.    Sure they're big enough to eat the worms though!

I had considered a 35L Nano too small for fish but expect a couple of those would be ok with a few shrimp?


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## Liam (10 Jun 2012)

The boraras won’t trouble grown shrimp but they will eat baby shrimp, they can eat glass worms so a baby shrimp will go down just as easily, as the boraras are so small they can get into all the baby shrimp hiding places. They may eat small planaria and control the population.  Genchem No planaria is a good product and will get rid of them for you. Danionella Dracula or ottos are the only fish I know that do not prey on baby shrimp neither of which are good at controlling planaria.


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## Aqua sobriquet (10 Jun 2012)

Thanks for that Liam.


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## darren636 (10 Jun 2012)

any of the boraras.


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## Iain Sutherland (10 Jun 2012)

Hey mate, i have boraras in my nano with shrimp and will be taking them out soon, shrimp are far more active at cooler temps and breed faster where as i have found the chilli rasporas really arent happy below 25/26 to the point they tend to jump out when it is lower.  This may just be my experience....? also shrimp tanks are far more active when there are no fish.
I would deal with the planaria by another means,  i believe there are treatments that are shrimp friendly, if you have stocked already.


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## dw1305 (11 Jun 2012)

Hi all,
Problem is that _Planaria_ are much more active at night, and although some fish - Anabantoids and live-bearers (_Trichopsis pumila_, _Betta splendens_, _Poecilia caucana_ & _Badis/Dario_ spp.?) eat them and might be small enough to be suitable, they will only control the population when it gets large enough for some _Planaria_ to be active during the day. When you can see some, you have loads you can't see.

I've tried getting rid of them with Flubenol (they are mainly harmless, and don't stop Plecs and cichlids breeding, but they eat unprotected fish eggs from Tetras, Cories etc.) and it works, but I've always got them back. 

I now use baiting to reduce their numbers, this consists of a gauze bag with a prawn in it, tied to a thread and removed about 2 hours after lights out.  This also works for leeches. Another collection method is with a small square of slate, it needs to be flattish, but not entirely smooth. The _Planaria_ will cluster underneath it during the day, and can be removed.

I usually dip the bait bag (or slate) in some boiling water, as leeches particularly cling on very tenaciously and are difficult to wash off or siphon up.

cheers Darrel


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## Aqua sobriquet (11 Jun 2012)

All good stuff, thanks guys.


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## Ady34 (11 Jun 2012)

Aqua sobriquet said:
			
		

> All good stuff, thanks guys.


...indeed, im suffering with planaria at the moment. Think ill try some of the shrimp friendly treatments available from freshwatershrimp, if that doesnt do the trick ill try warm prawn in a bag baiting!!


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## REDSTEVEO (14 May 2015)

Leeches yuugh! I hate them. 

I want a radio active multi directional nuclear powered armour penetrating laser gun to zap them with! 

I am looking on eBay now to see if I can find one

Steve.


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## EnderUK (14 May 2015)

Chances are anything that hunts down macro pray will then start to hunt down your pups. I had emerald dwarf rasbora destroy my hydra, blackworms, shrimps and even my trumpet snails.


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## roadmaster (14 May 2015)

I peer through the glass at the tiny baby shrimplet's no larger than the point of a straight pin, and quickly realized why I never saw many of them in my community tank's.
They now have their own small tank and forage about unmolested.


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## sciencefiction (15 May 2015)

Planaria is not particularly tasty to fish and most don't touch it after the first try. And it's also carnivorous and will hunt down small shrimp itself when large enough.
If there's a shrimp friendly treatment to kill planaria and not shrimp I'd go for that.
That's providing you do have planaria and not some other sort of harmless worms.


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## Tim Harrison (15 May 2015)

Not sure I'm equating cause and effect correctly...but I had a serious planaria problem (as bad as Darrel describes), but once I introduced these little fellas - Pethia gelius http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/pethia-gelius/ - it seemed to clear up over night. Might be a contender...
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l313/intelthug/hybid energy planted tank/detailright_zps7a7bdb35.jpg


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## mr. luke (19 May 2015)

Am i the only one that doesnt mind planaria? ):


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## Tim Harrison (19 May 2015)

Check this out, maybe you won't be so charitably disposed...http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=5416


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