# Planaria



## megasycophant

According to Arizona Aquatic Gardens' website, [Thai] Flying Foxes eat planaria. I wouldn't think they'd bother shrimp, either.


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## MatPat

I may give this a try once I get an established colony of cherries going. I'd really like to find some Fluvermal but I don't think it is available in the US without a prescription. I wish I knew some Discus breeders...


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## MatPat

Here is a nice article I found on Planaria.

Near the end of the article it states:

"Warning - Research carried out by Tim Henshaw at Bolton Museum (Lancashire, U.K.) indicates that Planaria carry a toxin on their surface. This toxin is particularly potent towards any species of shrimp and glass shrimp."

Maybe this is why the shrimp seem to jump when they come in contact with Planaria. I really need to find something that will take care of these guys in my shrimp tanks! I have read that Fluke tabs will work but I'm not sure how they will affect the shrimp. I may have to try it on the cherry shrimp tank and see what happens. If the Cherries don't survive the Fluke tabs I can get some more fairly inexpensively. Hopefully Wayne or Rob still have a nice breeding colony of them.

I think I finally know what has been happening to all of my shrimp fry for the past year or so


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## MatPat

After a bit of research, I guess I can forget about the Fluke tabs since they are not safe for invertebrates. I guess my only option is some serious gravel vacuuming water changes unless i can find some Flubendazole (Fluvermal). There aren't very many shrimp safe meds out there.


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## CincyCichlids

Those little bastard worm-things! I moved my shrimp to a new tank and put in some breeding pairs of Julidochromis Transriptus and Neolamprologus Caudopunctatus.. I haven't seen one since!


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## megasycophant

Yay! Tanganyikans rule!


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## MatPat

CincyCichlids said:


> Those little bastard worm-things! I moved my shrimp to a new tank and put in some breeding pairs of Julidochromis Transriptus and Neolamprologus Caudopunctatus.. I haven't seen one since!


If I could figure out how to get them to eat the Planaria and not the shrimp, I'd borrow a few from you. The Endlers worked for a while but then they figured out how to nibble at the pellets I feed the shrimp. Now they are no longer interested in the Planaria.


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## megasycophant

Why not just, tank by tank, remove shrimp, leaving just endlers (or Flying Foxes (which I think you can find at Jack's even) or whatever) in there, not feeding them for a week or so, let 'em eat all the planaria. What's the planaria life cycle like? Will they go a long time between feedings? Can you just starve 'em out?


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## MatPat

Ha Ha, great minds think alike. I started with a gravel vac on the New Bee tank. I removed the shrimp and plants and put Endlers in the tank. I put the New Bees in with the Blue Pearls and will leave them in there for the next week or so. I'm going to put the Tigers in with the Cherry Reds and do the same to their tank. Probably have to catch the Greens and Amanos and put them into other tanks as well. It's gonna be a fun day but I should have some fat and happy Endlers by next week


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## bencozzy

what kind of planaria do you all have in your tanks?

i have the white planaria(atleast i think thats what they are) and have never had a problem with them, with any inverts or fish.

they usually have a small population in my shrimp tanks but in new tanks they go crazy and have a population explosion.


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## MatPat

Chris and I both have the same type, the white kind. 

I've never had a problem with them except for my shrimp tanks. I think this is due to overfeeding and a lack of predators. 

I can't say for sure if they are the problem or not as I have never seen them eat a shrimp. i just know that I have had several different types of shrimp have babies in the past and rarely have any juvenile shrimp in my tanks. I've removed the HOB filters since I thought they were the cause so that only leaves the planaria (at least in my mind) as the problem.


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## megasycophant

Was trying to look for life cycle info on planaria, and think I figured out what I have/had. "Detritus worms", related to earthworms: http://lakes.chebucto.org/ZOOBENTH/BENTHOS/xxv.html

Thinking the Corydoras did their job, though, as I've been poking around quite a bit lately and haven't seen any.


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## megasycophant

I can't verify the accuracy of the source, but this is an interesting tidbit. Interestingly enough, though, the guy who posted the question is NOT talking about planaria, since his pests are free-swimming (from http://en.allexperts.com/q/Freshwater-Aquarium-3216/Free-swimming-white-worm.htm):

"You may have to change foods too. Some have more undigestible junk in them than others. I like Hikari and OSI brands. They are more expensive, but it is because they are more nutritious. I had a massive planaria problem in a tank of oscars that I fed some very cheap food to many years ago. I tried cleaning and chemicals and everything. I finally changed foods to some free samples of premium pellets I was given and the planaria disappeared in a couple of weeks. It was a lesson well learned. I only feed high quality foods now, and sparingly."


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## megasycophant

This page on culturing them says that feeding them once a week is adequate, may be helpful if you wanna "starve them out"? http://www.flinnsci.com/Sections/MS/lifeSci/liveCare_MS.asp


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## MatPat

Well, I've done a massive water change and gravel vac on the Tiger and New Bee tanks so that should help with the detritus in the substrate. I also added Endlers to the New Bee tank but I have too many baby Tigers to add any Endlers to that tank. I suppose I could net them out but I know I would miss some with that big bunch of moss in that tank and I would hate to give the Endlers a $5 lunch 

For the next couple of weeks I plan on cutting back to one pellet every other day or so. I need to double check what type of foods I am feeding.

Glad to see you got that worm thing figured out. Detritus Worms sounds nasty but it seems like they could almost be useful in a tank.


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## bencozzy

thats weird i have tons of baby shrimp and white planaria. never noticed them as a problem.

i was worried about my scuds though but i havent had any problems with them attacking shrimps at least alive ones, had a few die due to ammonia spike.

i over feed to i guess but my shrimps and scud/snails tend to eat all of it. i use 10 hikari algea wafers for my 29g cherry tank with ~200-300 shrimps.

how often are you doing water changes? because when i first set up the tank i was doing weekly 50% w/c and wasnt noticing much in the way of babies but now that ive backed off to once every 4-6 wks ive noticed more babies. could that have something to do with it??


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## MatPat

I haven't had any problems with the shrimp since moving to the new place. I'm not sure if the planaria was the problem in the past. I'm still waiting on my first batch of Snowballs and CRS to be born. Once they arrive I will monitor the tanks and see how the young do. If they survive, I'll be able to say it wasn't the planaria. 

At the old house I did weekly 20% water changes using mainly reconstituted RO water. I even changed it up a bit and started doing the water changes with Tap water but the problem persisted...pregnant females and no baby shrimp. 

I've been monitoring the TDS here recently to judge when to do my water changes. Most of my tanks have only risen 10ppm in the past two weeks so I haven't been doing any water changes. I just top off for evaporation with RO water. 

I think it is hard not to overfeed shrimp tanks. Then again, I don't have anywhere near the amount of shrimp in my tanks as you do.


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## bencozzy

ok guys found out my "planaria" are actually nematodes.

not sure how i got them???


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## MatPat

Ha Ha, maybe that is why your "planaria" don't seem to bother your shrimp ;-)


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## CincyCichlids

Are Nematodes the little crazy worms that flail like they're on fire??? I find that many are floating on top of my tank when it's dark. When I turn the lights on they all fall down as if I shook a piece of hornwort to pieces.. then some go crazy doing their stupid little dance. I wish there was a shrimp friendly badarse cichlid that would eat planaria and these annoying little worms... oh yeah and snails and bba... and do water changes... Haha.. I NEED SLEEP!


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## bencozzy

this guys dont flail, like mosquito larva or bloodworms do. they sort of swim by making "S" shapes. they are more content to crawling around though. they also tend to stay on a hard substrate never seen any on the waters surface.


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