# Where to buy No Planaria?



## xriddler

Does anyone know where they sale no-planaria? 

I am also looking for suggestions on a feeding tray for shrimps as i sometimes feed my shrimps at night with the tank light off and i forget to suck out the rest of algae wafers so its causing me some problems atm as my substrate where i feed my cherry shrimp seem to have started to house baby planaria i think.


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## LTPGuy

xriddler said:


> Does anyone know where they sale no-planaria?
> 
> I am also looking for suggestions on a feeding tray for shrimps as i sometimes feed my shrimps at night with the tank light off and i forget to suck out the rest of algae wafers so its causing me some problems atm as my substrate where i feed my cherry shrimp seem to have started to house baby planaria i think.


Interested in the same thing, so i'll be following this post closely!


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## matti2uude

You can get it from here http://www.canadianaquatics.com/equipment/equipment.htm
For feeding dishes I get them from the dollar store.


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## supershrimp

Tommy at shrimp fever stocks it too.


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## supershrimp

It should be called NO HYDRA.


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## Fishfur

I am curious.. what size are the planaria you have that you want to get rid of ? I mean literally, how long or wide is the largest of them you've seen in your tank ?


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## randy

Fishfur said:


> I am curious.. what size are the planaria you have that you want to get rid of ? I mean literally, how long or wide is the largest of them you've seen in your tank ?


Not in my tank but I've seen it in a local store (don't ask me which). The biggest and fattest planaria I have ever seen, and a lot of them too. Some are ~ 2".


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## supershrimp

Biggest I have seen , about 1.5" at Kim's. Gross!!


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## Fishfur

The reason I asked about the size is because I had an interesting chat about them the other day. The planaria I have seen in my tanks are, so far as I know, native to North America. I have yet to see one more than about 3/8" long & they're very narrow in width. The triangle shape of the head is hard to see, but it's there. They shrink themselves into a tiny ball if they feel threatened. They don't seem large enough to be much threat to shrimp, even babies. Now, I'm not saying they CAN'T hurt shrimplets, but the planaria in my tank are quite small animals and I wonder if they are actually able to harm shrimplets.

But the giant ones, and I have certainly seen them in a few tanks not my own, are another story. I saw some in a shrimp tank at AK, and was astonished at the sheer size of the things. These giants are Asian species, and they hitchhike with shipments from Asia. I have no trouble believing they could do great harm to shrimp and any other critter they chose to pursue.

I had a good reason for asking about the size of the ones that might be in xriddlers tank though. If it IS a native species, then it's never going to be huge like the Asian ones, and not very likely to cause much trouble. But if it IS the large Asian species, then I'd worry for sure, and want them gone asap.

It was interesting to learn that planaria don't have a 'mouth' as we think of it. They have an opening on the underside, more or less in the middle. From this they are able to secrete digestive juices onto the captured prey item. Once it has dissolved, they extrude a feeding organ, I am not sure if it's an actual stomach, but whatever it is, they use it to slurp up the juices of their prey, upon which they've been sitting while they wait.

Giant Asian planaria have enough mass and strength that they could certainly prevent a shrimplet from escaping once they've crawled on top of it, and it would not take long for the digestive juices to render the prey immobile. 

But the very small planaria I've been seeing in my tanks have very little mass & strength by comparison to their giant cousins. I've noticed they tend to shrink into a tiny ball if they feel threatened, and I suspect any fish large enough to grab one would probably eat one. It seems to me that most of their prey items would need to be quite small, or already dead when they find them. It's possible newborn shrimp might be at risk from these small planaria, but shrimp may also be able to escape pretty easily, before the planaria can settle into its feeding posture on top of the shrimp.

So surely it's good to find out what type of planaria you have, before you freak out over their presence. Some of the Asian ones I've seen are so big, I can imagine it might not be too hard to hand pick them..perhaps using a thin blade to lift them away from tank walls. Or use whatever trap works. But the small ones may not be worth the trouble, unless you simply can't stand the sight of them. So trap them out if that's the case.

I would think most fish would eat small planaria, assuming they could catch them, though that's not much help if they're in a shrimp tank.

Lastly, for the small native planarians, that I have described having in my tanks; if anyone has seen this type of planaria damage or eat a shrimp I'd be really interested to learn about it. Be good to know how big the shrimp was, how large the planaria was, and if the shrimp was alive or deceased before the planaria fed on it. 

Because their eating method is quite slow, any feeding planaria are probably going to be there for awhile. Time is needed for the secretions to dissolve the food item before the planaria will be able to consume it.


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## xriddler

ATM i dont see any on the surface but if i look closely i see detritus worms and small organsims in my gravel which i think look like planaria but they are small and i cant see if they have a triangle head. fishfur can you tell me more about this native planaria?


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## Fishfur

I can't tell you a whole lot beyond what I have observed myself. The chat I had was with Jackson, and he knew quite a bit more about them than I did until I spoke to him. Of the ones I have in my tanks, the largest one I've seen is certainly less than a half inch long, very narrow in width and they've been there for months, so I'm fairly sure they are full grown. Width and length both vary quite a bit, depending how they're moving or if they're trying to hide by curling up. I've seen them stretched out so they were not much more than a sixteenth inch across, and curled up into a ball they're still nowhere near an 1/8 inch wide. You have to poke at them to make them ball up like that.. they only seem to do it if feeling very threatened.

Those I see are either gliding on the glass, [ bare bottom tank ] or the Java moss, which is the only plant present. They're pale, very slightly pinkish beige. The heads are very hard to distinguish, especially when they are smaller. Even when they get to what I believe is adult size, the triangle shape of the head is quite hard to see, and a magnifying glass would help a lot. The 'eye spots' are also hard to see, neither they nor the head shape are nearly so obvious as they are in the big Asian species. But they do have a triangle shape head if you look closely.. with the two eye spots on the top of the head. The triangle is just not as wide compared to the body as the huge Asian species.

And I truly don't know exactly what species I have, but I suspect they are probably from the southern USA. There are dozens, if not hundreds of species in most countries in assorted bodies of fresh water. I know some species are microscopically small, and would be likely be part of what we call infusoria. I am also fairly sure they mostly arrive on plants, many of which are grown in Florida. I've never seen them free swimming, so I think it unlikely they'd come in a bag of water with fish or shrimp, but it's possible if a bit of substrate came with them.. but I think plants are a more likely vector. The Asian ones may well come with shrimp or with plants grown overseas, or both.

But unless there's somebody who makes a study of these creatures around here, I'd have to take one to a specialist to find out which species it is that is living in my tanks.

Having observed them now for months, I have not yet seen one feeding, at least not where I could be sure that's what it was doing. They don't seem to spend a lot of time being still. Perhaps they feed at night ? I am not sure. They seem to spend most of their time when I see them, most often around feeding times, gliding on the glass or the moss strands. Sometimes they stop for awhile, they may be feeding then. A few I've seen in other tanks seem to stick mostly to the substrate, which is likely a good food resource for them.

It appears to me that they mainly feed on biofilm and possibly infusoria. I don't see them on food I give the scuds and Amano shrimps.. they appear to ignore it.. again, possibly they find it after dark. There aren't many shrimp in this tank so I feed very, very little, so there's not a lot for them to find.

Just a curious question.. those detritus worms that were mentioned.. what colour are they and do you see them swimming in the water column ? I ask because if they're super skinny, kind of long for something so skinny, swim with a sort of thrashing, whipping motion through the water column and are a distinctly pink/brown colour, they might be Dero worms. Aka Microfex and those are something I'd like to try to culture. They're very popular in Europe and now in US Guppy and Betta breeding circles as live fish food, and have replaced baby brine shrimp in many fish raising operations in Asia. I had some, but got rid of them before I learned what they actually were. I keep hoping they'll show up again in one my tanks.


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## RCode

I believe tommy still has it in stock and will have it at his store when it opens Friday.


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