# Help to identify strange creatures in my aquarium



## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Hello everyone

Please help me to identify strange creatures that I discovered in my aquarium and let me know how to get rid of them. See attached pictures.
I have those in my 10Gl shrimp tank. This is 2 years old tank and I discovered them about 6 months ago. They usually don't attack my shrimps but what I discovered if I find dead shrimp or dieing one they jump on it right away and after 1 hr I can only see empty shell. Also if fish dies in the tank (it use to be my fish tank until recently as I started new 30Gl fish tank 3 months ago and moved my fish there) i can not find the body. Also I noticed empty shells from my assassin snails of of all ages and sizes and moved my my remaining assassins to the new tank. I also noticed, whatever I drop the food in the tank, they trying to grab some from my shrimps and shrimps fighting with them. Usually I see them when I drop food or somebody dies in the tank. They usually coming from under gravel. Also I noticed that my new 30Gl tank does not have them, although I moved my plants from this tank to new tank. What coast them to appear, who they are and how to get rid of them ?
And the most important question, would they go after shrimps eggs (although I still can see baby shrimps in this tank)?

Any help is appreciated.


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## carmenh (Dec 20, 2009)

http://www.planetinverts.com/killing_planaria_and_hydra.html


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## iBetta (Jun 19, 2011)

yep, liek carmenh provided,its planaria.
population explosion could come from overfeeding (a lot of ppl have come across them in their shrimp tanks so don't worry too much), loves meaty food so some people create a trap (i just fish them out) to trap them using a piece of meat. DO NOT attempt to squish them or cut them up because they'll just regrow into multiples


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Ok. Thank you everybody for your help. Now my question is;
Are they dangerous to baby shrimp and eggs ?
Should I feed my shrimps less to get rid of them ?
Where can I buy Fenbendazole ? Petsmart ? And how it called ?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

ppaskova said:


> Ok. Thank you everybody for your help. Now my question is;
> Are they dangerous to baby shrimp and eggs ?


No



ppaskova said:


> Should I feed my shrimps less to get rid of them ?


Yes; you can also try manual removal.



ppaskova said:


> Where can I buy Fenbendazole ? Petsmart ? And how it called ?


You may have to go to a veterinarian to get it. Some users may have some (try the Buy and Sale section).


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

How big are they? They look giant in those pictures but probably due to perspective, when they become bigger and depending on their population they can become harmful to the shrimp.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

splur said:


> How big are they? They look giant in those pictures but probably due to perspective, when they become bigger and depending on their population they can become harmful to the shrimp.


Some of them aproximatly 1-5mm long they are look big. some of them defenatly longer than baby shrims. How harmfull can they become ?


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

The ones that develope here in our water in the city are harmless. We're not in east Asia where they have huge planaria that will swallow baby shrimp. These things have a mouth in the center of their body and it acts like a vacuum. They don't grab onto fish or shrimp and suck the life out of them. Or like I've seen people claim scoop up the shrimp and swim away with them lol 

I'd say they're pretty much full grown at 5mm. You see them on dead shrim because they're scavengers. 

Meds to get rid of them is a joke. WC's and monitoring your tank is all you need. 

The products being sold just to control planaria and hydra are there to make the paranoid/gullible aquarists spend more money.

The only harmful thing I can think of is adding the meds having a huge die off of planaria and you tank going sour.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Jackson said:


> The ones that develope here in our water in the city are harmless. We're not in east Asia where they have huge planaria that will swallow baby shrimp. These things have a mouth in the center of their body and it acts like a vacuum. They don't grab onto fish or shrimp and suck the life out of them. Or like I've seen people claim scoop up the shrimp and swim away with them lol
> 
> I'd say they're pretty much full grown at 5mm. You see them on dead shrim because they're scavengers.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your response. But why if I kill all of my planaria, my tank will go sour ? And what's wrong with it going sour / lose of bacteria ?


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

What is also my conthirn that in that tank I had over 50 assassin snails and some of then over 2 years old. Since I've got planaria in this tank 6 months ago I started to discover empty shells of assassin different sizes from adults to babies and until today i discovered over 10 of them. I moved all there remaining assassins to my new 30Gl tank, where so far i have not seen any planaria (although I moved plants from this tank to new tank). While moving my assassin i discovered planaria inside one of alive assassin.
So now I'm conthirn if planaria can attack assassin snails they can attack baby shrimps or shrimp eggs ?


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

I doubt it's the planaria killing the snails. Those snails are known to eat each other.

Planaria digest externally and then suck in what's been digested by using a pharynx. They do eat live but not all of them. When they eat live it's mostly what fits into their mouth. 

I have a few tanks full of snails from apple snails and A. Spixi to MTS and pond snails I have never found empty shells because of planaria cleaning them out. Those tanks are over populated with planaria. If a snail dies it just sits there rotting until I remove it. 

Your shrimp who scavenge will pick the dead snail clean as well as dead shrimp or fish.

You can do the meds if it makes you feel better but they'll just come back with time.

The tank can go sour as in ammonia spike ect if you don't syphon out the bottom once you've treated the tank to clean up all the dead worms. You'll also be killing off the nematodes that are for sure in there as well. So it's a fix that comes with work.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Jackson said:


> I doubt it's the planaria killing the snails. Those snails are known to eat each other.
> 
> Planaria digest externally and then suck in what's been digested by using a pharynx. They do eat live but not all of them. When they eat live it's mostly what fits into their mouth.
> 
> ...


 OK. I'm confused about the assassin snails. Some people say they don't eat each other, some say they do. How to bread them ? They ate all my other snails. I heard other people who have hundreds of them. In my case they start eating each other after I reached 50 of them. Do I need constantly through other snails in the tank that they can hunt ?
Regarding planaria I noticed that they became aggressive when comes to feeding my shrimps and what ever I through algae waffels to the tank, they all over them instead of the shrimps. Now i think they poses hunger thread to my shrimps. How to feed both of them successfully ?


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## theeyrietrainer (Dec 9, 2010)

You're probably noticing them eating one another due to population control. Perhaps your assassin snails have depleted their food source (other snails, as a primary source) and have become cannibalistic because their own population became high with nothing else to eat. From the sounds of things, you sound like you're already breeding them. They just go about their business as normal - as long as you have sufficient food to keep them happy, they will continue to breed. Give them a source of food (something meaty) for them to enjoy and they'll probably stop eating each other (as heavily) and you won't have to throw in other snails.

The planaria are feeding aggressively because in the wild they would be direct competitors of one another. Both planaria and shrimp feed on detritus in the wild, and have to fight for food. To feed them both successfully, you'll have to ensure you're adding more food so that there's enough for the both of them. However, I thought your original plan was to get rid of the planaria? By feeding them both, you'll only continue your planaria population. If you cut back on feeding a lot, your shrimp should be able to outcompete the planaria because they can move to the source of food faster than the planaria and hopefully get enough of a fill until the next feeding time. If you keep it up, eventually the planaria population will decrease while maintaining your shrimp population.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

theeyrietrainer said:


> You're probably noticing them eating one another due to population control. Perhaps your assassin snails have depleted their food source (other snails, as a primary source) and have become cannibalistic because their own population became high with nothing else to eat. From the sounds of things, you sound like you're already breeding them. They just go about their business as normal - as long as you have sufficient food to keep them happy, they will continue to breed. Give them a source of food (something meaty) for them to enjoy and they'll probably stop eating each other (as heavily) and you won't have to throw in other snails.
> 
> .


What would you rcomend to feed my assassins with beside throwing rumhorn snails all the time to them? When fish dies in my tank it does not look like they run after it as I can find it almost untouched all the time.


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## default (May 28, 2011)

Honestly everyone has their personal opinions. However just to tell you mine and to work with what some other members have said --- get rid of them manually or change your substrate, also there are creatures that are suppose to eat them.
Planarias don't exist in my tanks with fish, usually their scared or don't get too large as they don't get to come out and "hunt".
I've had them in one of my shrimp tanks, really small numbers but large size. I was told before to just leave them alone as there aren't many easy options, I ran into a dilemma..
- when I tried rationalizing feeding amounts and started feeding algae flakes to minimize mess, the planarian started to hunt, other members can disagree with this, but I've seen molting shrimp die, younger ones, and shrimps that have no external damage but have been half eaten out from the middle. Experienced shrimp keepers have had the same tales as mine.
- however when I tried feeding regularly, the planaria population Went as fast as the shrimps..
Honestly opinion if taking the tank apart is not an option - catch em with a trap (let me know if you need help with that) or get some fishes like gouramis or kuhli loaches. And about your your snails, I find planarias will basically try to eat anything that can't gt away easily or can't defend themselves. And honestly snails would make a easily victim. 
Dont fall for any medications that are meant for aquariums, waste of money, only med known to work were dewormers meant more for dogs - even then your population of bacteria and other beneficial creatures would get killed.
Good luck.


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

default said:


> Honestly everyone has their personal opinions. However just to tell you mine and to work with what some other members have said --- get rid of them manually or change your substrate, also there are creatures that are suppose to eat them.
> Planarias don't exist in my tanks with fish, usually their scared or don't get too large as they don't get to come out and "hunt".
> I've had them in one of my shrimp tanks, really small numbers but large size. I was told before to just leave them alone as there aren't many easy options, I ran into a dilemma..
> - when I tried rationalizing feeding amounts and started feeding algae flakes to minimize mess, the planarian started to hunt, other members can disagree with this, but I've seen molting shrimp die, younger ones, and shrimps that have no external damage but have been half eaten out from the middle. Experienced shrimp keepers have had the same tales as mine.
> ...


Thank you for your opinion. I do like to know how to trap planarias ? I tried with lettis and dead fish, did not get far. In this tank beside shrimps I also have 2 ottos and 5 baby guppies. What fish should I put there that will eat planaria but not baby shrimps ??? Any help is appreciated


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## default (May 28, 2011)

ppaskova said:


> Thank you for your opinion. I do like to know how to trap planarias ? I tried with lettis and dead fish, did not get far. In this tank beside shrimps I also have 2 ottos and 5 baby guppies. What fish should I put there that will eat planaria but not baby shrimps ??? Any help is appreciated


anything would eat baby shrimps, but i heard gouramis work as well as kuhli loaches. usually it would depend on your specific fish and personality. however if you would like to trap them, you would need to make a trap first.
this is a experiment in itself, may work for you and may not, but worth a try.
-get a plastic water bottle.
-cut the top part where it starts to curve inward to the mouth piece(on some bottles right at the top of the label)
-flip it the other way so the mouth piece is inside the bottle and then tie it with fishing line.
-place a piece of food inside(soemthing that dosent dissolve fast is probably best. i would use the hikari algae wafers since they are rock hard for most of the time)
-place the bottle in the tank either sideways or the opening downwards into the gravel and leave it for a couple of hours.

you should catch planarias with this method, this is usually used to trap livestock in a heavily planted tank without destroying everything. so give it a try.
good luck


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

I was able to find Fenbendazole medication. After dozing it in my tank I noticed that most of planaria is dead but the ones that still alive mostly sitting on the glass. Also I discovered some very strange worm. It did not look like planaria. It was blood red and about 2-3" long. Never seen that one. Is this planaria as well ?


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## ppaskova (Apr 27, 2010)

Just for all of you sceptics. Fenbendazole medication worked and planaria is gone from my tank


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