Hydra.. What to do?

personally, i refuse to put any amount of copper in my tank. with all of the safer medications available, its only place is in hospital tanks and extreme cases.

hydra is far from an extreme case; there is no need whatsoever to put any chemical of any kind in the tank for the reason of getting rid of hydra. water changes and cutting back on feeding will work just as well and are much safer. in addition, adding copper to the tank does not cure the underlying problem that caused the hydra to appear. adding copper will not help water quality issues that will cause other ailments that cannot be cured with it, and may even be made worse with its presence.
 
I actually agree with you regarding hydra. I've never bothered to do anything special to get rid of them.But then unlike the OP I'm not trying to breed White Clouds in a tank infested with them. And I agree that copper can be a nasty compound in an aquarium.. But you're still perpetuating misinformation about it and the hydra themselves.
 
SubRosa said:
To put it in a nutshell all of the different means of hydra getting into a tank add up to one thing. We introduce them. They don't fly or crawl on dry land!
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Well Louis Pasteur proved that spontaneous generation doesn't "just happen". So, I agree... most things in the tank were put their by the owner one way or another.

Algae spores can pass in the air- other pests can be present but remain undetected until the conditions are just right and they have a population boom.

Probably a lot of "pests" that suddenly flare up in peoples tanks have been living in their tanks for months but without the right conditions to thrive.
 
Fenbenzadol is a powerful antiparasitic. Use of it in an invert tank is not recommended. I have used it in my invert tank without any losses but that doesn't mean it won't happen. I dosed very sparingly until until it reached recommended dosage and cured my tank infestation. Nerite snails are very sensitive to it.

Water changes work to erradicate many things and I would do that first. Do a PWC every 3-4 days with a thorough vacuum. Also moving the fry to their own tank will help in their survival.

Chemical treatment should be done only as a last resort at desperation time.
 
I appreciate all the responses, even if it gets a little hostile once in a while. I have been dosing EI on this tank and doing a 50% wc every weekend for about 2 yrs now. I would love to avoid a chemical fix if possible. I'm not really worried about the snails, as they are uninvited guests to the tank as well, but I don't want to kill the shrimp. I'll try upping my wcs and I'll leave the lights off for a few days.

-Mike
 
I've read that Spixis eat them. I dose my tanks with Fenbendazole. It's a medicine used to fight gastrointestinal parasites found in many animals. It is used by farmers, pet owners, aquarists, and many others to fight against parasites in their livestock. Fenbendazole is sold under some commercial names such as Panacur and Safe Guard.
 
If Spixis do eat them they'd be a good way to get rid of them. And if you're in PA or are close enough to the Philly area to get here I've got plenty!
 
Fenbendazole is most easily found as a dog de-wormer and can be purchased at most pet supply stores. I used the “Safe Guard” brand labeled for dogs. Panacur is another brand name product that can be used. The price was about $14 for four 1 gram packs. This was the smallest size available at my local fish shop. Online information is “sketchy” at best for using this medication in aquariums. Some people describe using a "pinch" of the powder for their tanks or using a "BB" sized measuring spoon for their tanks. Most accounts do not give the volume of their tanks so figuring out a dosage from their information is next to impossible. The best information I could find suggested using a 2ppm dosage to de-worm fish. I was worried about the effects on shrimp with this dosage so I calculated a much smaller dosage for my shrimp tanks. According to the package, one gram of the powder contains 222mg of fenbendazole. Therefore, 0.1gm would contain 22.2mg and this would be about 0.6ppm (can someone please double check my math) dose for my 10 gallon tanks.
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This is the formula I used and was very effective on my shrimp/snail tank. Again do NOT use if you have nerites. It has been found safe for RCS, Amano, Blue shimp, Asolene Spixi snails, and Ramshorns and others.

This did not work immediately and took 12-24 hours to take effect. It had no effect on my tank biological system. After 3 days I did a 50% water change. Waited 3 days and did another 50%. Far safer than copper.
 
I am not familiar with Spixi snails. Are they large like Nerites or smaller like the pond snails that are all over my tanks? Also, do they reproduce as rapidly as pond snails? I am willing to give them a try so long as they don't take over.

I kept the lights off today and didn't see any hydra when I turned the lights on this evening to check, but I do have a layer of scum on the surface and what looks like thread/string algae starting up. It looks almost like a spider web. I've been fighting the scum for a while. I reduced feedings, raised the spray bar, etc. but no help. It seems like once a week the stuff pops up again(talking about the scum, not the algae.) The algae is new in this tank, but I'm willing to guess that whatever is causing the scum is helping me grow algae too.

I think I'm going to try some different media in my filter. I'll try all biomedia and see if it helps.
 
Spixis are a type of Apple Snail. They get to be the size of a Diffusa. They're yellow with stripes. They require a mail and female to reproduce as far as I know. They lay their eggs underwater in clutches.
 
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