Hydra Problem

[madpiano]

Hello

I have a bad outbreak of Hydra. It's the white ones and they are all over my tank.

How do I get rid of them without killing my snails ?

I did do a search on the web, and it was said, that they appear in tanks which are overfed and that Ramshorn Snails eat them and also Croaking Gouramis would eat them ?

My tank isn't overfed. I feed 3 times a day very small amounts of flake. The fish finish this in under 2 mins.

The tank has a zillion of Red Ramshorns

I bought some Sparkling Gouramis, they ignore the Hydra completly (but I am worried they may become food).

The sparkling gouramis are quite small (2 are less than 1cm), so I am not sure how starving the critters would work.

What can I do to get rid of te Hydra, but not kill my snails and fish ?

Greetings
Sabine

 

[farm41]

If you are feeding 3 times a day, you are probably overfeeding, unless you have fry in a growout tank. 1 feeding a day is plenty for most fish. The 'zillion' snails is also another clue that you are overfeeding.

I have never had hydra, so I'll let someone with experience comment there.

 

[2la]

Cut down on feeding for the next weeks: Once daily or once every other day--don't worry, your fish won't starve. Are you saying that you feed them for two minutes per feeding or two minutes total? They don't need more than one or two minutes of total feeding time per day. The sparkling gouramis are problematic because introducing a paradise fish or blue (three-spot) gourami would help, but they might pick on the sparklers. Bottom line, though, is that there's too much excess food in the system.

 

[Randall]

Hydra Infestation

Dear Madpiano,

Hydra? Yech! I hate those things.

Some recommend adding mystery snails, while others have had success by adding hungry Three-spot or Pearl Gouramis. If I were in your position, I'd try 2 ml of 3-percent hydrogen peroxide and over oxygenate the little buggers.

This approach shouldn't harm your fish or snails.

Good luck!

Randall Kohn

 

[madpiano]

yay ! I got babaies !

Hello

I will have to stop for a while treading the Hydra. I have just noticed, that I have babies in the Tank 8O . By the looks of it (unless sparkling gouramies are lifebearers), they are Cherry Barbs. I have see one baby which is about the size of a newborn Guppy, so it must have been there for a couple of days, and there is 3 more, which are absolutley inchy. They are minute, but haven't got a yolk sack, so they must have been there for at least a day as well. They are hiding in my Bacopa Jungle....which is also the place where my Sparkling Goramis hide....I am hoping or at least 1 to survive. I just used the measuring Pipette from my Hagen Test Kit and squirted some Powdered Flakes in there, hoping that will be enough for the babies. I never thought any babies would survive in there, as it is a community tank and Barbs are egglayers ??? Wow !

At the moment I have
1 Butterfly Goodeid (he is male and their babies are much bigger)
10 Neons
2 Cherry Barbs
4 Sparkling Gouramis
2 Otos
3 Amano Shrimp
1000 (or so) Red Ramshorn Snails
5 (roughly) Undefined but pretty Snails

So these little babies have survived all the predators (including the Hydra) !

 

[Neil]

Unfortunately, the babies are just more food for the Hydra. The times that I have had hydra and fry, the hydra did really well at the babies expense.
Neil

 

[apistodave]

I use a de-wormer for pongids--it's called Panacur and it kills hydra in a heartbeat and leaves everything else alone

 

[madpiano]

Update

Hello

I know it was a long time ago, but the Hydra were gone shortly after my last message and the babies grew up to be lovely Cherry Barbs.
The Gouramis finally turned on them and they were gone within a week. I sadly lost the Gouramis a short time ago :cry: But I heard that they don't live too long.
Not such a bad idea after all though, as I purchased my first pair of Apistos today and the Gouramis were very efficient fry/egg hunters (never did have any more Cherry Barbs).
Snails are not doing too well. I got a free Giant Ramshorn the other day from the LFS and it croaked after a week. The little ones are still there, but not enough to keep the Algae down. The pretty rugby ball shaped ones are down to 2 or 3....
Some people may be scratching their heads as to why I am not happy regarding the snails, but I quite like the little buggers. They are cheap (well, free really) and they clean up and eat algae. Mine have never eaten a plant.
I am hoping the Apistos do well. I tried a bushy nose plec two weeks ago, but he died within a week. For some reason, they never stay alive in my tank. Otos do well, but they are a bit lazy. My 2 Otos have been in there since I got the tank. They have been through 3 complete re-dos, several water parameter changes, Ich outbreaks, BGS treatments...still have a fat belly and generally sit around doing nothing...
The Butterfly Goodeid had to go. Way too aggressive (was a good algae eater though). I lost 2 Amanos this summer, due to own fault (I put them in a seperate tank when I had to treat for Ich, and the heater failed in the tank and they got too hot. The one I couldn't find at the time and left in the big tank survived the Ich treatment well....).

So, now we got:
6 Neons (gave some to the BF)
5 Cherry Barbs
2 Otos
3 Cories (one of the spotted variety)
1 Amano Shrimp
2 Apistos Aggasizi
some snails.

Haven't got Water Parameters at the moment, as I haven't checked for a while, but will measure soon.

Cheers
Mad

 

[M0oN]

Try more oto's...I've got 7 in my 29 gallon and htey do a superb job of keeping things under control...

Most fish are better at preventing algae then at fixing it...once it's already become a problem it's hard to beat back...

 

[madpiano]

Yeah, I know. I have just added some more plants. Will get some more fast growers on the weekend.
The main problem with this tank is, that it is right next to the window. But the real algae problems only started, when I used rainwater and introduced Blanket Weed to the tank. The BW wasn't such a problem, got rid of it fairly quickly, but now the water is out of balance and other algae set in. I know more plants should solve the problem, but the algae is robbing the plants of nutirents.... I have 0 Nitrates in this tank....

 

[farm41]

The rain water won't be carrying any nutrients and is not beneficial to your planted tank, should be using tap water, plants don't do well in very soft water.

You are right though, the sunlight hitting the tank is most of the problem.

 

[fishgeek]

can you check phosphate levels
i tend to find this high when i have alagal probs
do you add any buffers to the water , these are often phosphate salts

andrew