Hydras

Turin Turambar · May 18, 2004

I'm almost sure that these creatures are hydras. Please take a look on the picture.

I feed the plecos 2 times a day with spirulina tablets. I'm sure that it's hydras main food source. If I stop/reduce the food, ancistrus plecos are gonna eat my plants. Believe me, I know that. With the regular diet I healed all plants, but, huh... I got hydras.

becky_e · May 18, 2004

I'm not an expert, but here's a nice bit of hydra info:

http://www.planet-pets.com/plnthydr.htm

Looks like they'd be a problem if you want to have baby fishies.

dwayne · May 18, 2004

I think it's cool that they have no brains... Turin, it doesn't look (from skimming that article) that they're harmful...

~Tara

kikuchiyo · May 18, 2004

As I understand it (and have read) yeah, they're not harmful, except to fry.

Tom.E · May 18, 2004

If they’re hydra, where’s the tentacles?

From the pic they look like they might be Stentors (a large trumpet shaped protist); though I‘ve never seen them that densely clustered.

Tom

Turin Turambar · May 18, 2004

Thanks everyone for the answers.
Hydras are not harmful (except for the fry) but they are - ugly. Unmagnified, they look like a dirt patches - that's not very pleasant sight on the leaves or stems.

I think the tentacles are those "Y" shaped stuff seen on the picture. Why I'm more confident that those are hydras is because they immediately retract when the fish/object goes by.

ash · May 18, 2004

I don't know- they sort of look like them in the picture but mine don't look exactly like that, they don't clump and they don't retract when the fish go by.

Turin Turambar · May 19, 2004

Here's a quote from the text that Becky provided:

"Though often abundant in ponds, hydras frequently escape notice because of their habit of retracting into a tiny blob when disturbed. "

That's exactly what happened! Maybe you, ash, don't have the hydra?

Z Man · May 19, 2004

I have had Hydra a few times from over feeding fry. All you need are Aquarium Pharm. "Fluke Tabs", 1/2 tablet to each 10 gallon of water. I crush them and mix in small containers of tank water and just dump it in. Will not harm anything else in the tank and the Hydra will vanish in less than a few hours.

Hans · May 19, 2004

i had them, got a gourami, no more hydras


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Hydras

Turin Turambar

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becky_e

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dwayne

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Tom.E

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Turin Turambar

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Hans

I will eat your fish.