flatworm/Planaria in shrimp tank, is it really that bad?

[Tucker90]

Literally just won the battle against them, had a trap going for months and would still see them, it took 6 months but they successfully killed 15 Cherry shrimp of mine and never saw a baby, just a berried shrimp then nothing!

Re-homed the nerites and used no planeria and haven’t seen one for a month!

Be warned though, put a nerite back in a month after treatment and doing 25% W/c Every other day and he went belly up within 2 days! So it stays in your tank for a while!


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[sparkyweasel]

I believe there are two different types of planaria.

At least. 🙂
There's planaria that are actually Planaria, and there are Planarians, which are Triclad flatworms, and often loosely called planaria instead of Planarians.
According to ITIS there are 20 species of Planaria and 1530spp of Triclads.
Wiki says only one sp of Planaria, but references a publication dated 1981. ITIS's latest review was 2016.
ITIS Planaria
ITIS Tricladida

 

[tiger15]

You can tell when they've caught a shrimp because they go the same colour as the food, in my instance I would see blue and black ones happily skirting about, they obviously made a huge dent because it reached a point where I had an entire missing generation of shrimp and I would see them berried but could never see babies. Interestingly when I ran no planaria through the system the population not just of shrimp but all inverts exploded.
Also of note, the tank even after running carbon is still a nerite killer, ramshorns and pond aren't bothered but nerites, I do everything right, drip acclimate etc and they're falling off the glass and dead in a week.

I thought those colored planaria pics are photo trick. The planaria in my shrimp tanks are all colorless, so does it mean I do not have the predatory type? I will try No Planaria anyway since I only have ramshorns and pond snails that aren't sensitive.

 

[SRP3006]

Most of my planaria were whiteish/cream coloured, but they definitely took shrimp and small snails.
On a note of caution the no planaria says it doesn't effect ramshorns but it did effect a few of mine. I've not seen a worm since though and shrimp and snails are back to normal.

 

[Forever Fishtank]

For what it is worth, when I bought plants from a Petsmart (big box store in North America) near me, on two occasions I found planaria in the little bit of water the plants came in - I always wash, inspect and dip my plants prior to putting them in the tank. I have stopped buying plants there. Never saw it at other Petsmarts. So I agree with @Garuf that a number of fish stores are most likely infected.

 

[tiger15]

Most of my planaria were whiteish/cream coloured, but they definitely took shrimp and small snails.
On a note of caution the no planaria says it doesn't effect ramshorns but it did effect a few of mine. I've not seen a worm since though and shrimp and snails are back to normal.

When you said definitely took shrimp and snails out, have you witnessed attack on live shrimp and snails. Scavenging and preying is not easy to tell apart unless you catch the killing red handed. I have many snails in my shrimp bowles, and have never seen planaria bother slow moving snails. But I have only a small population of planaria. I am sure if the planaria population is large, they can overwhelm the snails as there is no place to escape.

Since No Planaria can kill some ramshorns, I am reluctant to use it as I rely on snails to keep algae out and I read that once used, the tank remains toxic to snails for a long time. Moreover, sudden death of many snails and planaria can trigger ammonia spike in my fragile, zero tech shrimp bowl.

I am inclined to try planaria trap, or biological control by introducing guppies or carnivorous grass shrimp.

 

[SRP3006]

When you said definitely took shrimp and snails out, have you witnessed attack on live shrimp and snails. Scavenging and preying is not easy to tell apart unless you catch the killing red handed. I have many snails in my shrimp bowles, and have never seen planaria bother slow moving snails. But I have only a small population of planaria. I am sure if the planaria population is large, they can overwhelm the snails as there is no place to escape.

Since No Planaria can kill some ramshorns, I am reluctant to use it as I rely on snails to keep algae out and I read that once used, the tank remains toxic to snails for a long time. Moreover, sudden death of many snails and planaria can trigger ammonia spike in my fragile, zero tech shrimp bowl.

I am inclined to try planaria trap, or biological control by introducing guppies or carnivorous grass shrimp.

Caught red handed no, seen plenty of planaria next to shrimp who have jumped away when they have came into contact with something (possibly the slime trail they are supposed to leave behind). Ramshorns breed prolifically and their numbers started falling and I didn't see any small ones. So even though I might be making assumptions with them actually predating on the snails and shrimp I did notice a decline in population.

With regards to meds, I used the dog Dewormer (sorry forgot name, I'll edit if I remember) and after 2 weeks I returned the nerites and I'm afraid to say they've all perished. Whether the meds attached to glass or hardscape I'm not sure.

 

[tiger15]

Caught red handed no, seen plenty of planaria next to shrimp who have jumped away when they have came into contact with something (possibly the slime trail they are supposed to leave behind). Ramshorns breed prolifically and their numbers started falling and I didn't see any small ones. So even though I might be making assumptions with them actually predating on the snails and shrimp I did notice a decline in population.

With regards to meds, I used the dog Dewormer (sorry forgot name, I'll edit if I remember) and after 2 weeks I returned the nerites and I'm afraid to say they've all perished. Whether the meds attached to glass or hardscape I'm not sure.

The dog dewormer is Panacur C or fenbendazole.

If you saw plenty of planaria next to shrimp, specially during feeding time, you had high population problem. I only see a few planaria crawling up the glass from time to time, and more snails gather around food. So drugging run the risk of massive snail death and may not worth it.

 

[SRP3006]

The dog dewormer is Panacur C or fenbendazole.

If you saw plenty of planaria next to shrimp, specially during feeding time, you had high population problem. I only see a few planaria crawling up the glass from time to time, and more snails gather around food. So drugging run the risk of massive snail death and may not worth it.

Fenbendazole.
Absolutely I had quite a population of them, used to be on the glass even when the lights were on. They are the ultimate scavenger and their population will grow reasonably unhindered as long as you have food/waste.
In your situation I would try baiting a bit more, they are quite easy to remove like that but it wasn't making a dent in my problem. Meds were the last option for me. I couldnt stand them anymore.

 

[Nick potts]

The dog dewormer is Panacur C or fenbendazole.

If you saw plenty of planaria next to shrimp, specially during feeding time, you had high population problem. I only see a few planaria crawling up the glass from time to time, and more snails gather around food. So drugging run the risk of massive snail death and may not worth it.

Before adding any meds etc to the tank, do make sure it's planaria you have. I bought some no planaria to dose my tank but it turned out to be rhabdocoela worms and killing them all off would have caused me more problems than it would have solved.

 

[Guest]

I believe that is rhabdocoela, but we'll see.

 

[SRP3006]

Does this look like Planaria? This guy is about 3mm long, and 0.4mm wide. I can't quite be sure.

It doesn't have the typical arrow shaped head and weird looking 'eyes' that planaria has so I don't think so.

 

[Nick potts]

Does this look like Planaria? This guy is about 3mm long, and 0.4mm wide. I can't quite be sure.

These are exactly what i have in my tank and they have been identified as rhabdocoela worms, all pics I can find match Rhabdocoela worm and not the typical planaria.