Hydra invading

[Groovy Jeff]

I have been feeding BBS and now I have hydra in my tanks. I have two tanks with fry, A linei and A atahualpa, and they seem to be doing fine; however, I don't wan tot let this go either. I am only keeping Apisto at this point and I still consider myself a beginner, so not sure how the fish would respond to Mardel Clout?? Any suggestions?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I have been feeding BBS and now I have hydra in my tanks. I have two tanks with fry, A linei and A atahualpa, and they seem to be doing fine; however, I don't wan tot let this go either. I am only keeping Apisto at this point and I still consider myself a beginner, so not sure how the fish would respond to Mardel Clout?? Any suggestions?

If it is available where you are "Fenbendazole" is good for Hydra.

In the UK I bought Panacur tablets (a cat wormer), these were 22% Fenbendazole.

It is a really low dosage, you need 0.1g in 38 litres (~10 American gallons). I crushed it up in a pestle and mortar and weighed it out on a scientific balance. I used 0.2g on a 60 x 30 x 38cm tank.

If you don't have a balance I would crush up the full 1g satchet, and then subdivide it into the appropriate number of equally sized divisions by eye (so into 5 piles for a tank of my size).

cheers Darrel

 

[Bart Hazes]

I've had hydra in breeding boxes and tanks where I was feeding a lot of BBS. Once I stopped feeding it the hydra spontaneously disappeared. I didn't find the hydra to be an issue, apart from stealing some of the BBS, and they are actually quite pretty if you get your magnifying glass out. Maybe it is a different story if fry are less than 2 weeks old when they aren't vigorous swimmers yet, but I'd rather lose some BBS to the hydra than lose fry to the medication.

Bart

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I've had hydra in breeding boxes and tanks where I was feeding a lot of BBS. Once I stopped feeding it the hydra spontaneously disappeared.

I mainly ignore them, but I feed a lot of live food, Daphnia, Micro-worms, Grindal Worms, Mosquito larvae etc. and I find that every couple of years I have a fairly obvious "Hydra viridis" tank.

I assume because they have photosynthetic symbiont (Chlorella) that they can subsist without catching much in the way of zooplankton.

Eventually I treat them with fenbendazole (it also kills Planaria) and it is another couple of years before I need a repeat treatment.

cheers Darrel

 

[Groovy Jeff]

Darrel- Fry in the one tank are about 1 month old and swim well; do you think a treatment will harm them?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Darrel- Fry in the one tank are about 1 month old and swim well; do you think a treatment will harm them?

I think it is pretty safe at the low dose that you need to kill Hydra, but with pesticides there is inevitably some risk involved.

There is a discussion here with some veterinary input <"Fenbendazole as a Hydra ....">.

cheers Darrel

 

[gerald]

FLUbendazole also works well against Hydra, according to Charles Harrison. Not sure how it compares to FENbendazole in terms of safety to Apisto fry.

 

[miguelgr7]

For me the best option loock:

http://greenleafaquariums.com/products/no-planaria-worm-disinfectant.html