# My Hydra experience



## Andrew Butler (3 Sep 2018)

I thought I would share my experience of hydra with everyone and see how tackling them goes.
I have only just discovered them and am off away at the end of the week so time is of the essence here.
The tank has been running for over 8 months with nothing being added in the last 6 months; I wonder if my diamond tetra were keeping them under control before I moved them around month ago. At the moment there are just some dwarf ottos and crystal red shrimp which are breeding like mad and the hydra does not seem to have effected the shrimplets as reading suggests.
The hydra only seem to be in the one spot; on the darkside of one particular stone but who knows where else they are lurking.
I'm hopefully going to get someEsha Gastropex tomorrow which I'm told is shrimp safe and should tackle the hydra - watch this space.


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## oscarlloydjohn (3 Sep 2018)

I killed mine with Genchem No-Planaria. Worked a treat.


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## azawaza (3 Sep 2018)

I had mine in a 14 litre tank (first tank and a nano! Recipe for disaster ha) previously due to poor water quality.

Killed them with 10% Hydrogen Peroxide solution from the pharmacy. Used a stringe to blast them under water.

No lifestock was harmed but you could do an immediate water change thereafter.


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## Zeus. (3 Sep 2018)

Andrew Butler said:


> Esha Gastropex



Used that on my tank at x2 stated dose and shrimp fine just done last repeat fortnight dose, but the snails have gone


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## Andrew Butler (3 Sep 2018)

oscarlloydjohn said:


> I killed mine with Genchem No-Planaria. Worked a treat.


I did look at this but couldn't get it tomorrow, I also have great trust in Esha products.


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## Andrew Butler (5 Sep 2018)

Any advice on what does / doesn't kill hydra if I'm wanting to give my water change hoses a clean through along with surface skimers etc?
Milton? Bleach; although I've never bleached my skimmers before.

People with experience of Hydra and or using Esha Gastropex to battle hydra what can you tell me? - Time it takes to work, how long it takes to kill of the hydra etc.


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## Mihai Varban (6 Oct 2018)

I also noticed a few dozen hydra after adding in some new plants. It was just before I was going to go on a 2 week vacation as well so you can imagine how I felt. The tank was in its last stage of cycling. And I had added some amanos to wreck some algae while I was away. (They shredded my alternanthera instead lol). When I came back, obviously had way more (hail) hydra. Shrimp didn't get hurt but they don't clean in hydra infested areas. So i went to my lfs and got a couple of small dwarf gouramis, along with some tetras and corys, as it was time to stock the tank properly. I had performed some maintenance beforehand. Scrapped the glass, did some plant pruning, vacced the substrate slightly, moved some stuff around. The internet had said that if you physically harm hydra you're in trouble because a hydra cut in two is now two hydra, so I watched closely. The gouramis must've done their job because to this day ( 2 months later ) i have no visible hydra. So yes. Get a dwarf gourami for a while. Even one will do. They eat them like chilies!


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