Amano Shrimp and Hydra

Phosaurus

Phosaurus

AC Members
Jun 18, 2009
81
0
6
Salinas, Ca
Hello everyone!

I looked into my 10 Gallon to count the shrimp and I notice my Amano/Algae eating shrimp seems to have something on it. I look closer to find he has three hydras on its shell...the shrimp doesnt seem to be in any harm. Should I be concerned? :o
 
Thanks for looking.:goldfish:
I guess I answered my own question...:huh:
I shouldn't be worried after all, since eventually it will shed its exoskeleton sooner or later. :o

Any comments welcome!
 
idk if i missed a comment or something but when it sheds the hydras may pose a problem
But i think that would depend on your shrimps size....then again i dont know too much about hydras
 
Alright, I will monitor the shrimp if anything changes. Thanks!
 
Ianne said:
but by the time your shrimp sheds i would figure the hydras would be dead...unless they were feeding on something :x
Click to expand...

:o I hope the hydra are no longer there if the amano does shed.
 
They could spread. If it gets real bad, they could start stinging shrimplet (if you have anything other than amanos) or tiny fry. It also looks pretty gross. I had a problem and they covered large areas of my tank.

I finally treated with fenbendazole granules...it's a dog dewormer. I forgot the dosage but it was just a pinch in my 34 gallon and they shriveled up within a couple of days. It caused no harm to my shrimp at all. YMMV so it would be a good idea to research this (search the forums or google) or someone else may be able to chime in here with some more data.
 
phreeflow said:
They could spread. If it gets real bad, they could start stinging shrimplet (if you have anything other than amanos) or tiny fry. It also looks pretty gross. I had a problem and they covered large areas of my tank.

I finally treated with fenbendazole granules...it's a dog dewormer. I forgot the dosage but it was just a pinch in my 34 gallon and they shriveled up within a couple of days. It caused no harm to my shrimp at all. YMMV so it would be a good idea to research this (search the forums or google) or someone else may be able to chime in here with some more data.
Click to expand...

What he says. I had one heck of a hydra issue about a month or two ago and while I would see shrimplets, they and tons of berried adults, they population wasn't increasing and then the shrimplets just weren't around at all any more. The hydra were killing my shrimp. I could see the adults jump when they got stung. Ultimately, I ended up using the fenbedazole, which I had used before, and things seem to be coming around now.

They hydra are essentially filter feeders. That is, they grab food out of the water column as it floats around. The size of the food particle can be extremely small. They reproduce by splitting in two with the new hydra moving a little way aways from the original one. I had colonies of these things on my glass, on corkscrew vals leaves, and on the anubias nan mini and barteri. It was terrible and I even tried cutting back on the feeding.

So, if you see two or three, those two or three can become 100+ in a month or two.

Here is a link for you:

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...-planaria-hydra-elimination-shrimp-tanks.html
 
Thank you for the link and very helpful information fellow members! I will try to get my hands a on fenbedazole a.s.a.p. I really don't want this to get worse. I have currently do have a few on the glass both the white/clear and green hydras. Also, they are small. Is there a difference between the BIG hydra and SMALL hydra?http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/member.php?u=96198
 
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