# Hydras



## ScarletFire (Nov 4, 2012)

I found 6 hydras last night, and I want to get rid of them asap. I've seen that people have used fenbendazole with success, so I want to use this route. However, on one thread, someone said that it isn't water soluble, and flubenazole should be used. 1. Which one should I be buying? 2. What have people been using here?

In the marketplace, someone said to buy fenbendazole from Ebay. I looked up Panacur, and I saw 3 types of Panacur: tablets for dogs/pigions, cream for horses, and a dewormer liquid. Among the tablets, there is a variety of different concentrations. 3. Would one with a higher or lower concentration be better? I also saw 10 grams of 40mg/g Fenbendazole for $5 with free shipping, from Thailand. 5. Is this reliable?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Ideally, a higher concentration (if cheaper) would be better, since you are getting more chemical for what you are paying.

Though, dosing might be more of a hassle (you will have to cut/weigh out the powder, depending on how it is packaged).


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## Bwhiskered (Oct 2, 2008)

Spixy Snails eat Hydra naturally.


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## Scotmando (Jul 10, 2011)

Bwhiskered said:


> Spixy Snails eat Hydra naturally.


I have some Spixi snails if you want to borrow them for a week or so. I had hydra in one of my tanks and they ate it up!

PM me


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

I'll give you a few spixi to keep if you want to head over to my area Bathurst and Steels 
LMK


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## Egonsgirl (Feb 28, 2012)

Spixi worked for me in my shrimp tank too!!!! Not a big fan of chemicals if there is a natural way.


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## Dman (May 1, 2012)

I used the meds and honestly my shrimp were never the same, they stopped breeding and became very weak, would suggest splixi them


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## ScarletFire (Nov 4, 2012)

I read that the spixi snails will eat other snails as well, in addition to healthy plants. I have MTS, pond, and ramhorn snails. Did you have any problems the spixi have any effect on snails and plants? The wisteria and frogbit in my tank is slowly, and the myaca is slowly degrading. I'm worried that the spixi might just ruin what plants I have left.


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## xriddler (Feb 16, 2012)

i just introduced assasins into my tank. do they eat hydra too? can spixi and assasins co exist? i contracted hydra from some plants i think and pulled whatever i could out but i picked up one small one from a gravel and i slipped up with my tweezer and it fell back to the substrate. I am super worried now.

My two new assasins havent moved yet though. And i introduced them for 7 hours already. should i presume that they have died?


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

ScarletFire said:


> I read that the spixi snails will eat other snails as well, in addition to healthy plants. I have MTS, pond, and ramhorn snails. Did you have any problems the spixi have any effect on snails and plants? The wisteria and frogbit in my tank is slowly, and the myaca is slowly degrading. I'm worried that the spixi might just ruin what plants I have left.


They don't bother MTS but the do eat other snails like ram horns and pond snails especially if they're not fed well.
Even though mine are fed well I still see them swarm ram horns so I keep them separate. 
They also eat snail eggs including their own.

They don't touch healthy plants.


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

xriddler said:


> i just introduced assasins into my tank. do they eat hydra too? can spixi and assasins co exist? i contracted hydra from some plants i think and pulled whatever i could out but i picked up one small one from a gravel and i slipped up with my tweezer and it fell back to the substrate. I am super worried now.
> 
> My two new assasins havent moved yet though. And i introduced them for 7 hours already. should i presume that they have died?


No they can't co exist one or the other will eat each other.

The only snails IME spixi won't kill and eat are MTS and other types of apple snail.

I'm pretty sure assassins don't eat hydra.

I've had newly introduced snails not move for over a week and still be alive just give it time


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## xriddler (Feb 16, 2012)

i guess once they start moving ill have to sell my assasins and get a spixi cause i missed that one dang hydra -_- im kicking myself for that mishap now.


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## Scotmando (Jul 10, 2011)

ScarletFire said:


> I read that the spixi snails will eat other snails as well, in addition to healthy plants. I have MTS, pond, and ramhorn snails. Did you have any problems the spixi have any effect on snails and plants? The wisteria and frogbit in my tank is slowly, and the myaca is slowly degrading. I'm worried that the spixi might just ruin what plants I have left.


I have the Spixi in with ramshorns and they're multipying & fine. Spixis will only eat plants when there's nothing else to eat.

If the Spixi snails have eggs, I will take em out to hatch.

Offer still stands if you want to borrow some. PM if interested.

Chemicals are your last resort and should be avoided wherever possible. There's always a natural solution.


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

Here's a pic of an A. Spixi eating ram horn eggs

















I'll try to get a few of them eating an actual snail. When I have time.

I'm not saying they'll destroy the whole group but they do keep them under control and if not fed well they will take them all out eventually.

I get better/larger numbers of ram horns keeping them separate. 
I lost a few of my first few blue ram horns after I first bought them.
I kept them together at first not knowing the spixi will eat/kill them. I was lucky to catch it in time before all of them were eaten.


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## ScarletFire (Nov 4, 2012)

I'm going to be stuck in Hamilton until the shrimp meetup weekend (two weeks later). Should I wait until then to get some spixi snails, or dose with fenbendozole now?


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## prolific8 (Jan 10, 2013)

*Spixi for Scarlet*

I would definitely avoid the chemicals, once you go that route you cant go back. I have a golf ball sized zebra apple (spixi) that I could bring to the shrimp meet for you, if you can hang tuff for another week. If you wanted to bring something to swap for it that would be great, otherwise it is still yours, just think twice on dosing.

Steve


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## ScarletFire (Nov 4, 2012)

After seeing hydras in your tank, how long does it usually take for you to do something about it, before you had spici snails?


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

ScarletFire said:


> After seeing hydras in your tank, how long does it usually take for you to do something about it, before you had spici snails?


The adult shrimps will be okay, I've yet to see a hydra killing a baby shrimp but maybe I just missed them. It's not a clear and present danger. Don't try to squash them because that's only helping them to multiply.


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## prolific8 (Jan 10, 2013)

*get the big ones first!!!!!*

I treat all undesireables the same. Physically remove what is visible (my favorite combo is a chopstick and a turkey baster) I do this for scuds, small snails, planaria, etc - knock it loose and suck it up, this takes care of the large ones (in your case the most dangerous). Then work on the little spawn, find a natural solution (for hydra its Gourami, bettas or snails - only snails are friendly in a shrimp tank). And it always helps to vacuum substrate and dip all plants/hardscape, as a final nail in the coffin.

That is what I do and it has worked for me so far, I am sure there are other ways and I have read about panacur and other chemicals in limited doses. but it seems like a roll of the dice to me.


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## razoredge (Dec 31, 2011)

prolific8 said:


> I treat all undesireables the same. Physically remove what is visible (my favorite combo is a chopstick and a turkey baster) I do this for scuds, small snails, planaria, etc - knock it loose and suck it up, this takes care of the large ones (in your case the most dangerous). Then work on the little spawn, find a natural solution (for hydra its Gourami, bettas or snails - only snails are friendly in a shrimp tank). And it always helps to vacuum substrate and dip all plants/hardscape, as a final nail in the coffin.
> 
> That is what I do and it has worked for me so far, I am sure there are other ways and I have read about panacur and other chemicals in limited doses. but it seems like a roll of the dice to me.


I also use the turkey baster to suck up the nasty planaria in my tank. So much easier to vacuum them up. If you accidentally split it they will multiple.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Gee, I wish I'd known the aspixi's were likely to eat ramshorns. I'm happy to have them eat pond snails, but I think now I understand why nearly all the blue Ramshorns have gone missing. I thought maybe they were just not in view at the time I was looking, but now I think the Aspixi's ate them. Because there are a LOT of aspixis and hardly any pond or ramshorns. Though they don't seem to bother the mystery snails.. I think they may have eaten a couple of my Nerites too.

Dang, how did I miss this critical little detail about Aspixis ? Anyway, I could loan you some Aspixis too, if you want. I have quite a few of them.

Jackson, let me know next time you have more blue Ramshorns.. I've only a few left, and now I know why. For sure Aspixis will eat hydra.. and they don't bother any of the plants.


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

Fishfur said:


> Gee, I wish I'd known the aspixi's were likely to eat ramshorns. I'm happy to have them eat pond snails, but I think now I understand why nearly all the blue Ramshorns have gone missing. I thought maybe they were just not in view at the time I was looking, but now I think the Aspixi's ate them. Because there are a LOT of aspixis and hardly any pond or ramshorns. Though they don't seem to bother the mystery snails.. I think they may have eaten a couple of my Nerites too.
> 
> Dang, how did I miss this critical little detail about Aspixis ? Anyway, I could loan you some Aspixis too, if you want. I have quite a few of them.
> 
> Jackson, let me know next time you have more blue Ramshorns.. I've only a few left, and now I know why. For sure Aspixis will eat hydra.. and they don't bother any of the plants.


I'm sorry I did post that pic up of the one eating eggs and mentioned it in my ad but when I have more I'll give you some to make up for it.

Here just threw this one in last night and already it's being eaten. They eat what they can reach and then the smaller ones get the rest.


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## razoredge (Dec 31, 2011)

Fishfur said:


> For sure Aspixis will eat hydra.. and they don't bother any of the plants.


I disagree that the Spixi snails don't eat plants. I've recently put some spixis snails into my cherry shrimp tank and they been chopping at my corkscrew vals. I found the plants all chewed up and floating at the top!!! Anyone else encounter this?


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## Scotmando (Jul 10, 2011)

ScarletFire said:


> I'm going to be stuck in Hamilton until the shrimp meetup weekend (two weeks later). Should I wait until then to get some spixi snails, or dose with fenbendozole now?


*DON'T USE CHEMICALS!!!

Try the snails, they work fast*


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## xriddler (Feb 16, 2012)

Are spixi snails prolific breeders? or are they like assasin snails?


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## ScarletFire (Nov 4, 2012)

xriddler said:


> Are spixi snails prolific breeders? or are they like assasin snails?


Oooooooh. +1 to this question.


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

xriddler said:


> Are spixi snails prolific breeders? or are they like assasin snails?


Not really unless you put the work in. Separating and separating is the only way to get large amounts of babies.


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## ScarletFire (Nov 4, 2012)

Jackson said:


> Not really unless you put the work in. Separating and separating is the only way to get large amounts of babies.


When you mean separating, do you mean putting eggs in a different place so it doesn't get eaten?


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

ScarletFire said:


> When you mean separating, do you mean putting eggs in a different place so it doesn't get eaten?


Yes

Not only do I separate them from the adults I separate the Neely hatched from the unhatched because they'll also eat the ones who aren't ready.


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## ScarletFire (Nov 4, 2012)

So just to confirm, if I have several spixi snails, they won't be reproducing very fast because they eat their own eggs?


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

ScarletFire said:


> So just to confirm, if I have several spixi snails, they won't be reproducing very fast because they eat their own eggs?


It really depends on how big the tank is how many you have in there and how often you feed them. 
In a 10-30 gallon they will most likely be eaten before they hatch if you have 10+ adults but that's no guarantee.
They're not like ram horns where babies will keep popping up out of no where. 
I have yet to see any babies in my tanks that I keep them in and don't remove the eggs.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Hmmm. I have my Aspixis in a, I guess it's about 25 or 26 G tank and I often see egg masses. I have not kept much of an eye on them, but while it's obvious that they don't all hatch, I do have some babies. Not as many as I expected, and of course, now I know why.. but I do have a few.

Thanks Jackson.. I remember a pic of eggs in the sale thread, but have no recollection of hearing they eat both their own young and other snails. If I'd known I'd never have put my coloured snails in with them. And I think they may have done in at least a few of my Mystery snails too, so I'll be removing all the other snails from this tank and leaving it just for the Aspixis. They are a good all purpose snail, so it should be ok.. and I'll leave the MTS in there, because they don't seem to be suffering much from predation.


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

Fishfur said:


> Hmmm. I have my Aspixis in a, I guess it's about 25 or 26 G tank and I often see egg masses. I have not kept much of an eye on them, but while it's obvious that they don't all hatch, I do have some babies. Not as many as I expected, and of course, now I know why.. but I do have a few.
> 
> Thanks Jackson.. I remember a pic of eggs in the sale thread, but have no recollection of hearing they eat both their own young and other snails. If I'd known I'd never have put my coloured snails in with them. And I think they may have done in at least a few of my Mystery snails too, so I'll be removing all the other snails from this tank and leaving it just for the Aspixis. They are a good all purpose snail, so it should be ok.. and I'll leave the MTS in there, because they don't seem to be suffering much from predation.


I keep mine with what is called mystery snail/big apple snails blues,magenta, yellow, wilds and whites. They don't bother them they all group together and the mystery/apple snails have been breeding like crazy. 
IME MTS and other apple snails are the only ones they don't harass or eat.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I'm not so sure they don't bother Mystery snails. I put four new Mystery snails in the same tank as the Aspixis just a few weeks ago and two of them are now dead and completely eaten. That's just plain odd for Mystery snails. One of them was a nice Ivory about 3/4 inch shell, the other a lovely dark blue with gold that was very near full size, getting close to golf ball diameter. 

In the last batch of Mysteries I acquired, there were several like that one, gorgeous deep, dark blue colour and dark gold shells, but most of them had abnormally small 'doors on their foot. I've never seen Mysteries like them before, their doors were nowhere near big enough to close the opening when they pulled their foot inside, so I wonder if perhaps this made them more vulnerable to attack ? In any event, I've now removed the remaining live Mysteries and Nerites from the Aspixi's tank, just to be safe. 

I still like the Aspixis. .they are very attractive and they do as good a job keeping glass and plants clean as most snails do, and they don't seem to bother the MTS snails, which also do a pretty good all around clean up job. But after losing those Mysteries, the blue Ramshorns and at least one Nerite in their tank, I will not be giving them any more live coloured treats to gorge on. Pond snails they are welcome to! 

And the next egg mass I see I'll remove from the main tank and raise them separately too, so I don't end up with no Aspixi snails in the future.


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

Fishfur said:


> In the last batch of Mysteries I acquired, there were several like that one, gorgeous deep, dark blue colour and dark gold shells, but most of them had abnormally small 'doors on their foot. I've never seen Mysteries like them before, their doors were nowhere near big enough to close the opening when they pulled their foot inside, so I wonder if perhaps this made them more vulnerable to attack ? In any event, I've now removed the remaining live Mysteries and Nerites from the Aspixi's tank, just to be safe.


That's exactly why they seem to attack the snails with no trap door or lack there of.


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## laurahmm (Apr 1, 2010)

razoredge said:


> I disagree that the Spixi snails don't eat plants. I've recently put some spixis snails into my cherry shrimp tank and they been chopping at my corkscrew vals. I found the plants all chewed up and floating at the top!!! Anyone else encounter this?


My spixi snails also eat my plants. They mowed down all my dwarf microsword plants and actually chewed up my petite anubias. It could be due to the fact that I'm not providing them enough food/snails or algae? But they definitely eat plants if hungry enough.

laura


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