I. hate. planaria.

[vampie]

Within 5 months, I had no more pond snails or ramshorns. I had lots of little babies, but after the planaria, I was gradually seeing fewer and fewer, and no egg sacs after a while. Do they also eat eggs? Or maybe that was because the baby snails were not growing up to take over for the snails dying of old age or getting fed to the puffer. Hmm, something to think about. Maybe I'll try breeding snails again.

Adult snails should be fine though, right? I've got 5 zebra nerites in there that are all at least nickel sized in that tank right now besides the cherry shrimp and amano shrimp. I haven't seen planaria in a few weeks, but like I said it's a heavily planted tank and they are so small.

I'm not sure if they eat eggs. The adults will be alright.

I think assassin snails will eat Planaria.

Yes- I'm kidding!

Coincidentally enough, I have an Assassin snail in there.

Won't spixi snails eat planaria?

A few weeks back I asked about Spixi's reputation for eating small snails of other species (and their own species) and everyone that responded said their spixis did not appear to eat other snails- so putting spixis in the tank probably is safe.

Especially because ACers know how to look after snails properly and FEED them so they don't resort to shell-i-cide.

Still... with the spixi's reputation as a snail-eater... I don't know that I'd 100% trust spixis in a tank that is being used to raise baby briggs. Probably OK if fed well- but... there is always that chance that bridgesii become escargot.

I believe the Spixi's ability to eat smaller snails, as well as things like planaria and hydra, and inherited from hybridization with Marisas. I don't think pure Spixis would eat those things, but with no good way to tell apart pures and hybrids, it's hard to say.

I didn't spot anymore last night or this morning.. here's to hoping it was just a small outbreak from some eggs I didn't catch last time.

 

[Wycco]

Are you not worried about the Assassin eating the baby Bridgesii- or is the one-a-day mortality acceptable?

Or do they instead go after Ramshorns? I've heard they prefer Ramshorns over other snails.

You're probably right about the Spixi. It's probably like putting cherry shrimp in a betta tank. Lots of people have kept cherries with Betta successfully- but I know luck would dictate that I'd be the one where the Betta turned around and ate all the shrimp.

If I put a spixi in with some baby brigs- the spixi would be bound to have a snail-eating appetite!

 

[vampie]

Not really. Any damage it does to the population wouldn't be noticeable, especially compared to an army of planaria.

I'm not sure which they would go after first. When I first suggested that Assassins had an order of preference when it comes to their prey a year or so ago, I wrote the list going in this order: Ramshorn, Quilted melania, MTS, Bladder snails. I've never bothered with baby Mysteries at that point, and I'm not sure if anyone has tested Assassins with them, or any other snails to develop that list furthur.

 

[bigwave]

Just my 2 cents on Planaria:

I had a small outbreak in my cherry shrimp tank, and havn't seen a single baby since. Actually I don't really see any berried females either. I have seen a couple dropped clutches of eggs, and I wonder if the larger planaria are harassing the shrimp to the point they won't even carry babies.

However to make cut a long story short, I also HATE planaria, and have a fairly effective removal method. I put a baby food jar lid in the bottom of the tank, and place some shrimp pellets on it. Then watch for planaria to climb in to eat, take the entire lid out, and dump the planaria in the trash. Rinse (with very very hot water) and repeat. My shirmp swim off when I get the lid, you could probably pick your snails off easily enough.

That and a better water change routine seem to have helped!

 

[MTiffany]

As a last resort...

If it comes right down to it and you've exhausted other options, you can remove the adult inverts you want to save to a refuge tank and then bomb the main tank with a course of Clout. That may seem cruel, since the Clout would kill the baby snails, but the planaria are killing them anyway. I'm just putting that out there as an option if nothing else proves effective.

I hope you get rid of the planaria another way.