# No Planaria - No Work?



## Splak

Hi all again.

So some of you may remember my planaria post/problem.

Well, I got no planaria in the mail 3 days ago. and have been treating my 10gal tanks to the recommended doses, for the past 3 days. I mix the recommended amount in a glass of tank water until desolved, and add to tank.

But I have not noticed any decrease in these creepy little worms.

Is it possible they are something other than planaria? I have no pictures and my camera sucks, but here is what they look like.

http://onedersave.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/planaria1.jpg

They sort of worm themselves around the tank, mostly on the glass.


----------



## solarz

Those are certainly planaria.


----------



## Splak

I figured, this is so annoying, I lost a few shrimps to them and had to put them in a different tank till I rid of them. But this doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon...

I am about to just rip apart both tanks, and clean everything with hot water and put it back together. Speed cycle the tanks with some used filters and hope for the best they won't come back


----------



## Kimchi24

Splak said:


> I figured, this is so annoying, I lost a few shrimps to them and had to put them in a different tank till I rid of them. But this doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon...
> 
> I am about to just rip apart both tanks, and clean everything with hot water and put it back together. Speed cycle the tanks with some used filters and hope for the best they won't come back


strange, i use the same product and the first time it worked for me within two days. didn't even need the 0.25 spoonful for the third day. another breakout has occurred and this is the seventh day of using it. There is a decrease but no final result.

I say, do a water change and start the three day process again


----------



## Splak

Interesting, maybe they built up an immunity somehow quickly. I will try the water change and start over. 

Thanks!


----------



## solarz

Splak said:


> Interesting, maybe they built up an immunity somehow quickly. I will try the water change and start over.
> 
> Thanks!


Before you take down the tank, try putting some fish in there. They should clean up the planaria in no time.


----------



## Splak

Good idea, thanks!


----------



## Modo

I used the same product in my tank. I actually watched these suckers and hydra died within couple hours. Treated it for two days and it was fine. Maybe doing a water change too would help. I found them thrive in dirty water and where the water flow is slow moving.


----------



## Modo

Just a dumb question. Do you have carbon in your filter? Only because I made that mistake with my shrimp tank before.


----------



## Kimchi24

Modo said:


> I used the same product in my tank. I actually watched these suckers and hydra died within couple hours. Treated it for two days and it was fine. Maybe doing a water change too would help. I found them thrive in dirty water and where the water flow is slow moving.


ahhh that might be my problem. I have NO flow in my tank. Its a small sponge filter. hmmmmm.


----------



## Splak

Kimchi24 said:


> ahhh that might be my problem. I have NO flow in my tank. Its a small sponge filter. hmmmmm.


Same here, I have a small sponge with no other pumps for flow. But my water conditions are excellent!

No, I have no carbon in the tanks. My temp tank does have carbon in the canister, but it gets changed every 3-4 weeks so it won't leach anything harmful.


----------



## J_T

Splak said:


> Same here, I have a small sponge with no other pumps for flow. But my water conditions are excellent!
> 
> No, I have no carbon in the tanks. My temp tank does have carbon in the canister, but it gets changed every 3-4 weeks so it won't leach anything harmful.


It won't leach, but by design it will remove the "No Planaria" from the water, thus not doing anything.

Take out the Carbon (and other filters) and dose again.

Edit, see that its your temporary tank that has carbon;


----------



## Fishfur

I take it these are the small size native planaria ? Maybe 3/8 inch long or so ? I am curious, have you ever actually seen one eat a baby shrimp ? 

I ask because I have often read that planaria will kill shrimp, yet when I had them in a few of my tanks they never bothered any shrimp. There is a giant species from Asia, which I have seen in person, that for sure can catch and kill shrimp, but they are truly huge, over an inch long, more than quarter inch wide. All planaria have their mouth parts in the middle of the underside of their body, and for our native planaria, it is a very, very tiny mouth. So I have a hard time figuring how a shrimp, even a tiny one, would allow a planaria to climb on top of it and start eating, without moving away from it. Planaria can't grab anything, they have no jaws, no claws, they just secrete digestive juices onto anything they find that's edible. They aren't very fast moving, so I would think most any healthy shrimp could simply swim or walk away from the things.

So I just wonder if you have ever seen them actually eating live shrimplets, or if you have lost shrimp and because there are planaria, you figure they must be the cause ?


----------



## Splak

I actually witnessed one of my younger red cherrys walk over one on the sponge filter. It sort of stood up I guess and and attached itself my the bottom of my cherry. 

But the cherry then pushed it off really fast, so it was on for maybe 1 or 2 seconds.

So I am assuming, that maybe, some of the shrimp didn't get them off and they ended up dead as a result.

I have all my shrimps in another tank right now, for the past maybe 4-5 days, and no deaths since the move.


----------



## Modo

I read somewhere that hydra actually acts more like jellyfish. It stinks the prey first and then move to eat it after. So maybe adult shrimp would be fine, but babies may get immobilized.


----------



## Fishfur

Hydra do indeed sting first. They are just like jellyfish, with toxic neumatocysts that 'fire' into any prey that comes close enough to trigger the response. Then the tentacles begin to draw inward, and if the prey is small enough, bring the prey with them to the mouth which is at the bottom of the tentacles. Chances are they can't actually eat a baby shrimp but they can sting them to death if they get too close. Hydra don't hunt, as such. Though they can move, they do so with tentacles closed up. They anchor to something, then open the tentacles and hope for food to come close.

Planaria, on the other hand, can hunt. They just aren't especially fast, nor able to grab anything. So whatever they eat has to stay still long enough for them to secrete digestive fluids onto the prey. This is why I have a hard time believing they are very dangerous to shrimp, which are much more mobile than planaria are. I suspect if they do eat shrimp, the shrimp are either dead or too near death to move before being eaten. 

If I am wrong, I wish I could see a planaria filmed preying on a shrimplet that could reasonably be assumed to be healthy before being attacked, if only so I could see how the planaria manages this feat.


----------



## Modo

So if you have both in the tank, then it may be a problem. The hydra could immobilize a shrimplet for the planaria to be attach to it.


----------



## Fishfur

You'd need a fair number of both to have a problem. But if you have hydra, get a spixi snail, they eat them. And cut back feeding, which will help reduce planaria numbers, and siphon out those you see.
Do not damage hydra. They can regenerate a cell into a new animal.. and are immortal. Being studied because of the immortality thing. But you can siphon them too, if you see them.


----------



## chance

After 4 months I noticed some baby planaria in my tank. sighs. Anyone try benibachi planaria zero? I don't want to start a whole new set up again. This sucks. And I got taiwans in the tank.


----------



## coldmantis

You can try one of planaria traps, I recently made one and put a shrimp pellet in there, two days later I see not planaria in the trap..... Maybe you will have better luck

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4


----------



## ameekplec.

Try prazipro. Completely shrimp safe, kills planaria.

Remember to completely follow instructions though. Usually what I do (I use it to treat incoming fish for parasites), is a big water change a little before lights out (50% or more if you can), then treat with prazipro, making sure that it gets well distributed in the water column. Keep your lights off the next day (I can't remember if it's photosensitive or not, bt I usually keep lights off the next day). On the second day, turn lights back on, life goes on.


----------



## Modo

chance said:


> After 4 months I noticed some baby planaria in my tank. sighs. Anyone try benibachi planaria zero? I don't want to start a whole new set up again. This sucks. And I got taiwans in the tank.


I used it recently in my shrimp tank without problem. After the first dose, I can actually watch them shrink and disappear. Followed up with two more doses as instructed, and it's been planaria and hydra free.


----------



## chance

do panda loaches eat planaria? i know ppl say fishes is not safe with shrimps. But i might give it a try if they eat planaria.


----------



## chance

I aslo have these very thin long worms. And its not planaria. anyone know what they are? harmful?


----------



## Fishfur

Chances are they are nematodes of some kind. Usually called detritus worms, and quite harmless. If they are pink coloured, they may be Dero worms, which are an excellent fish food and I'd love to find some to culture.


----------



## LTPGuy

*Brigittae Rasboras*

I pair of these beautiful "Chili" Rasboras work wonders for me.

I keep two pairs in my 10gal globe where I house my Cardinals and Blue Diamond.

I might be lucky to spot a copepod or a lone planaria once in awhile. I have other tanks without the rasboras, and they are showing sign of a plaque. I've hence shipped 1 pair to do the clean up jobs. I am hoping to acquire more when they are available.

In my globe, I initally have 10 Blue Diamond, and it has been slightly over two months now, and I have over a 100 of the Blue Diamonds.

I have watched the rasboras very closely, and I have never seen them trying to attack a baby shrimp. The small of babies are still reasonable large relative to these small fish, and the babies are not as helpless as they might appear. They are lightning fast when threaten.

In the tank that was showing sign of a plaque, it has been two days since the transfer, and the pair of rasbora cleared 90% of the copepod/planaria.

I hope this help.


----------

