# Hydra



## jeff158 (May 27, 2009)

Hey guys I have a hydra infestation in my CRS tank and I'm not sure which direction I should take in terms of removing them. Any suggestions are appreciated and there are some shrimplets in the tank. 


Thanks


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

That's a tough one, because just about everything you can use chemically to kill hydra will also harm or kill your shrimp.

I'm not sure you have any options other than manually removing them or moving all the shrimp out of the tank and then just dumping the whole tank.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

increase water change frequency with substrate disturbance...so you suck up the ones that are stuck to the substrate. 

manual removal from glasses and hard surface by a syringe.

but generally speaking, the only way to control them is to decrease feeding.


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

This is a good article about getting rid of Hydra and Planaria. 
http://www.planetinverts.com/killing_planaria_and_hydra.html


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## jeff158 (May 27, 2009)

ok thanks guy, what chemical should i use if it comes down to it? i also plan to do twice a week 25% changes now


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

jeff158 said:


> ok thanks guy, what chemical should i use if it comes down to it? i also plan to do twice a week 25% changes now


I'd just scrape them every couple of days and keep your water changes up. They go away. I would NOT treat if you have cherry shrimp.

Hydra will eat really tiny cherries. The rest are not in danger.

Get a coarse sponge like aquaclear sponge. Go over all your glass rocks and wood with it. Press and go in circular motions to rip the hydra up.

Any colisa (dwarf gourami) species will peck hydra up by the way. But will also peck up baby cherries.


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

AquariAM said:


> I'd just scrape them every couple of days and keep your water changes up. They go away. I would NOT treat if you have cherry shrimp.
> 
> Get a coarse sponge like aquaclear sponge. Go over all your glass rocks and wood with it. Press and go in circular motions to rip the hydra up.


Since hydra can reform a new individual from each broken bit, I wouldn't recommend anything that tears them up.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

bae said:


> Since hydra can reform a new individual from each broken bit, I wouldn't recommend anything that tears them up.


But if you keep tearing them up, eventually they dont come back.
Im speaking from personal experience. YMMV. Thats what I do with hydra. I wipe every day and keep the water ultra clean and eventually they give up.

Definitely dont medicate though as anything that will kill hydra will hurt your shrimp.


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## jeff158 (May 27, 2009)

Ok I'm seeing a lot of adult crs deaths (6) now so im planning to remove all the shrimps from the tank and leave the tank empty and starve them to death. As for scrubbing them I have a lot of them growing on my plants instead of the wall.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

jeff158 said:


> Ok I'm seeing a lot of adult crs deaths (6) now so im planning to remove all the shrimps from the tank and leave the tank empty and starve them to death. As for scrubbing them I have a lot of them growing on my plants instead of the wall.


thats tricky. I think you have come up with a good solution.


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## xXEnzoXx (Feb 13, 2010)

Whoaaa how do you get hydras anyways? This is starting to scare me


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## jeff158 (May 27, 2009)

No idea, I clean my water once a week. Only other reason I can blame is overfeeding but I didn't overfeed them completely.


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## xXEnzoXx (Feb 13, 2010)

It seems to me from what I was reading (and must I remind everyone that I am reading as we go along as well) most people who have hydras have one thing in common, they all got shrimp. So begs the question, does shrimp sometimes harbor hydra?

I am a bio student so to me if a predator was to prey on something mobile, but this predator was immobile itself, it would make sense to kind've be parasitic and use the shrimp as transportation to take them close to the shrimplettes since they want to get close anyways, and the closer the better I suppose.

But I never had hydras, just seems to me that everyone that has them had shrimp as well so I am trying to piece things together but this is definitely deterring me from wanting to start up a shrimp tank


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Hydra usually won't be able to attack a fully grown shrimp, at least in my experience.

Sunstar (no longer active) said something about using prazipro to kill them off - I can't remember how effective it was, but it may be worth a shot.

They're not parasites of shrimp - it's more likely that they hitch hike in on plants or water from other species. Most shrimp keepers are also plant keepers, so that's a more likely avenue, especially since most don't do anything to clean or sterilize their plant specimens.


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## flyboy320 (Feb 6, 2010)

Here is a link that someone posted about his eradication of Hydra. Didn't hurt his shrimp an it was very effective.

Problem is finding fenbendazole as you "usually" need a prescription here in Canada to get it from a vet. I'm trying to find some right now, and its hard to come by. In the States yo can just buy it in pet shops no bother.


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

I find that you do not need to do anything drastic when hydras show up. I've had them in the past and all I did was reduce feeding, keep up water changes and wipe. 

I am with ameek on the fact that a full grown cherry shrimp does not usually succumb to hydras. Baby shrimp most likely but I most likely not an adult. I wouldn't rule out other causes of death.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Another option - you might try introducing an omnivorous fish into the tank. Never tried it myself, but I imagine they may eat the hydra.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Chris S said:


> Another option - you might try introducing an omnivorous fish into the tank. Never tried it myself, but I imagine they may eat the hydra.


Yup. Any colisa species.


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

Flubendazole or Fenbendazole? 
Here is an article on fenbendazole and hydra:
http://www.planetinverts.com/killing_planaria_and_hydra.html
and a link to an eBay source of fenbendazole:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Dog-Cat-Fish-Hor...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2a05253c24
I have ordered medication from this person just recently and it was inexpensive and a 100% good transaction.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Honey gouraminidazole is the best medication. Once the hydra are gone remove it to its own tank and keep it as a living vaccuum until needed again. It WILL try to eat anything tiny, bright and moving, this includes baby cherries. Will not bother larger shrimp. One will clear about a 20 gallon of hydra in a single day. They love it.


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## jeff158 (May 27, 2009)

Lol this sucks for me since I gave away my honey gourami 2 weeks ago , but I have a betta that might do a good job. Tanks now cleared except for betta atm


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

jeff158 said:


> Lol this sucks for me since I gave away my honey gourami 2 weeks ago , but I have a betta that might do a good job. Tanks now cleared except for betta atm


Not as well as a dwarf gourami. They very much enjoy hydra.

I really don't think the hydra were hurting your shrimp to be honest. I've had hydra in tanks with large numbers of amano shrimp and have never lost one. Maybe they were getting the babies but to say you lost adult shrimp to them-- I just can't see it.


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

xXEnzoXx said:


> It seems to me from what I was reading (and must I remind everyone that I am reading as we go along as well) most people who have hydras have one thing in common, they all got shrimp. So begs the question, does shrimp sometimes harbor hydra?
> 
> I am a bio student so to me if a predator was to prey on something mobile, but this predator was immobile itself, it would make sense to kind've be parasitic and use the shrimp as transportation to take them close to the shrimplettes since they want to get close anyways, and the closer the better I suppose.
> 
> But I never had hydras, just seems to me that everyone that has them had shrimp as well so I am trying to piece things together but this is definitely deterring me from wanting to start up a shrimp tank


(1) Shrimp, especially red cherry shrimp, are very small, so people look closely and are more likely to see the hydra.

(2) Shrimp need a lot less food than you'd imagine, so shrimp tanks tend to be overfed, which is ideal for hydra.

I suspect hydra and planaria are present in most tanks with plants, but they don't become numerous enough to be visible unless there's overfeeding (and close examination).

I keep ramshorn snails in my shrimp tank. They consume enough spare food to starve out hydra and planaria. Hydra in particular are further along the food chain -- spare food is rotted by bacteria, and/or eaten by protozoa and tiny crustaceans, which are eaten by the hydra. Planaria eat bacteria, mostly.

Hydra can regenerate from tiny bits, so I suspect that in nature such fragments drift around in the water and settle on new sites, or they move around with bits of plant or detritus they attach to. They can also 'crawl', by somersaulting base over tentacles. While it would be cool if they had some special adaptation for hitchhiking on larger animals, they do just fine without it. Btw, hydra have been seen riding around aquaria on snails.


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## jeff158 (May 27, 2009)

I've noticed that you guys have been saying cherry shrimps a lot, they're Crystal reds so maybe they're weaker than cherries


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

jeff158 said:


> I've noticed that you guys have been saying cherry shrimps a lot, they're Crystal reds so maybe they're weaker than cherries


I can't see a hydra killing any kind of shrimp unless the shrimp in question is < 1mm. It's a soft bodied blob with a neck and a few tentacles. The tentacles can sting-- but I can't see that really injuring an adult shrimp unless it had literally just moulted and even then it's just so out there.. it's like saying a shark killed you while you were in a helicopter. It's so implausible.

I honestly think there's another explanation for your dead shrimp. I don't have it. But I think it exists.


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## mauve (Apr 12, 2010)

Can I get some Hydras from you?


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