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Hydra strategy advice

aec34

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Joined
10 Oct 2020
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551
Location
Gloucestershire
So... got some hydra appearing in my 20l shrimp tank (planted pretty heavily, 11+ cherry shrimp, set up about 2 months, no CO2, no snails, weekly 30-50% water changes). They appeared a bit after an outbreak of cyclopes, and I’m assuming this is connected - I don’t feed my shrimp but let them graze on what they find. This also coincided with the removal of their old almond leaf, and I kid myself a few hydra went away when I gave them a new one for Christmas, but I suspect this is wishful thinking...

The shrimp don’t seemed bothered, but I’m worried about what happens if they start breeding, which I’m hoping will be soon: some saddles are appearing, and they bred in the old tank (biorb).

Strikes me I’ve got 3 options - and I would welcome advice:

1. Don’t worry about it. There aren’t loads of them, and hopefully as they pork their way their way through available food they’ll go away so as to be unnoticeable - and some babies will survive...? But more babies = more food...

2. Attempt to dose with Panacur or No Planaria. I’m a bit scared about this because I only have a very small volume of water, and really don’t want to overdose by accident (and liquid solution Panacur is £30/bottle?!?). Is No Planaria an easier and cheaper option? Any advice on dosing levels?

3. I’m really not keen on the electrode option...

...and there are no ‘fish libraries’ as my husband pointed out, so I can’t borrow a beast to eat them.

Ta!
 
Personally have let hydra run their course and they’ve disappeared of their own accord @aec34 , watchful waiting approach. These have all been heavily planted tanks though.

Given the outbreak of cyclops beforehand, maybe others can advise as to whether this is connected.
 
Hi all,
Given the outbreak of cyclops beforehand, maybe others can advise as to whether this is connected.
It is, but only indirectly. When you have a lot of small live food you tend to get a Hydra boom, but only if the Hydra were already present in the tank. Yours will probably become inconspicuous again, but if you do want to get rid of them fenbendazole ("Panacur") is very effective.

Old aquarists used to associate <"Hydra with feeding Baby Brine Shrimps">, but that doesn't really make any sense, Hydra are entirely freshwater organisms, so they can't have come with the Brine shrimp eggs. <"My "Hydra" tank"> was one where I fed a lot of live food, some Daphnia, but mainly Grindal and Micro Worms.

I know that Hydra are really common in ponds etc, but are often very inconspicuous and <"can subsist for years on very little food">.

cheers Darrel
 
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Ok, some of the hydra are getting pretty big now, and now I’ve got berried shrimp so time for Panacur.

Do people recommend getting tablets, or 10%/22% suspension? And what dose should I aim for? I’m not totally infested, but I’d feel happier for the sake of the new arrivals if the hydra were fewer.

Treasure trove of options:
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My concern is that this is for my 20l tank, so I’m very anxious about overdosing and killing the shrimp. (No snails.)
 
Whenever I get a few Hyrda making an appearance, I mist them with a little Excel, they are generally gone the next day - I've always assumed the shrimp eat the corpses.
 
Seconding the recommendation for Panacur C dog dewormer, the 22% fenbendazole mix. I dose 0.1g per 10 gallons (so roughly 0.1g/40L), and get results in 24 hours or so. I crushed it into a fine powder with a rolling pin, and sprinkle the powder straight into the tank.
Functionally that probably means the barest pinch of powder will be enough for your tank since it's very small.
 
Just to give the alternative view, I used Genchem no-planaria on my 12L shrimp/cuttings tank a few weeks ago when I had a pile of baby shrimp that were smaller than the hydra, and it worked perfectly.
Great - how straightforward was dosing on a little tank? That’s my primary concern in all this
 
It comes with a teaspoon in the pack, and the dosing was 1 spoonful per 50 litres for the first dose going down to 1/4 spoonful for the 3rd dose on day 3. For mathematical convenience I assumed my tank was 12.5 litres, and measured out 1/4 spoonful, 1/8 spoonful and finally 1/16th spoonful. And then rounded them all down a bit for safety. The hydra p[retty much pegged it after the first dose. It did occur to me that I could have been more accurate by mixing in a larger amount with 20mls of water and then just adding a measured fraction of the water. Of course I only thought of that afterwards, so I faffed around with tiny measures obsessively. My shrimp ignored the whole thing. But they were noticeably more active by day 4. I hadn't realised how subdued they had become with the rise of Hydra.

Cheers,
Simon
 
I ended up dosing 0.05g panacur (no, that isn’t very much - I invested in some little scales). I didn’t grind all of it fine enough, so I had a little snowy patch in the tank.
Within a couple of hours all the hydra lost their tentacles. I did a 50% water change the next day. We’re now a week on and no sign of the hydra, and the remaining powder has dissolved. Shrimp seem quite perky, and berried shrimp still ok. Success! 👍
 
I ended up dosing 0.05g panacur (no, that isn’t very much - I invested in some little scales). I didn’t grind all of it fine enough, so I had a little snowy patch in the tank.
Within a couple of hours all the hydra lost their tentacles. I did a 50% water change the next day. We’re now a week on and no sign of the hydra, and the remaining powder has dissolved. Shrimp seem quite perky, and berried shrimp still ok. Success! 👍
Hello,

Can I ask you how did you dose the Panacur? I have seen some hydras in my tank and bought a 1.8gr satchet of crystals of Panacur but not sure what to do with it next.
Do I measure 0.05 grind it and add it to my tank or do I mix it with tank water before? If yes how much water?

Thanks!
 
Hello,

Can I ask you how did you dose the Panacur? I have seen some hydras in my tank and bought a 1.8gr satchet of crystals of Panacur but not sure what to do with it next.
Do I measure 0.05 grind it and add it to my tank or do I mix it with tank water before? If yes how much water?

Thanks!

As @veerserif details above, if it’s the 22% powder, you need 0.1g per 40 litres.

I’ve had to use some today for Planaria. I just measured out what I needed, (0.15g for my 60 litre tank), added to a small mixing bottle with some warm tap water, gave it a through shake until it had dissolved (or rather gone fully into suspension, it doesn’t seem to dissolve fully), and poured it into the tank.
 
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