# Planaria in tank?



## Endlesserror (Sep 28, 2020)

Over the past few days I've been seeing a little flat white worm with the classic triangular head of planaria. They seem to be rapidly multiplying. Not sure where they came from as I've never had them before, and am unsure what to do.

I have red cherry shrimp in my tank, ember tetra and dozens of bladder snails. Various online sources suggest planaria are dangerous to shrimp and can be treated safely with a dog deworming medicine but that this would likely kill the snail population too and I'm worried about a mass die off affecting the water parameters.

Should I just leave things alone? Increase water changes? Try panacur c?


----------



## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

I successfully treated them once with panacur. Don’t recall if it harmed snails, but likely will...but so will the planaria, if I recall. And yes, they will get under the shrimp’s armor and eat them from the inside.


----------



## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

You can get a turkey baster to suck out any you see. That’s the long game with no drugs. There are commercial products to handle planarian. If you go with pancur, crush and dissolve it in A little vodka first. It’s not water soluble. I have no idea what the dosage is.

You can also try good old salt, 1 tablespoon/ 10 gallons.


----------



## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Endlesserror said:


> Over the past few days I've been seeing a little flat white worm with the classic triangular head of planaria. They seem to be rapidly multiplying. Should I just leave things alone? Increase water changes? Try panacur c?


I would clean the tank. Somewhere in the tank, there's accumulated debris and organic matter. I only see Planaria when tank gets _really_ dirty, such as when I had a clogged filter.

I think killing them is going to make situation worse. All those dead little bodies decomposing in the tank... Ugh!

How long has the tank been set up?


----------



## Endlesserror (Sep 28, 2020)

Thank you for your advice!

I'm going to try to avoid the panacur c if possible. This is my first Walstad tank, it's a 10 gallon I set up 6 weeks ago.

I'll read up on aquarium salt and shrimp (also new to shrimp...).

Just did a 40% water change, but even after that I can still see some dead hornwort needles on the substrate so I wonder if they build up too much.


----------



## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Endlesserror said:


> Just did a 40% water change, but even after that I can still see some dead hornwort needles on the substrate so I wonder if they build up too much.


Water change is good! But I would also remove the hornwort needles and any other dead plant matter.

In a relatively new tank like yours, it will often have an excess nutrients, both dissolved (DOC) and solid waste. This is what is stimulating the planaria.

A picture of the tank would help if you have further questions. Let's hope that you have enough plants and that they are growing well. That's the ultimate measure of success.


----------



## Endlesserror (Sep 28, 2020)

Ms. Walstad, I can't thank you enough for pointing me in the direction of the filter! I've been doing 20% water changes daily after your initial advice to make sure there is little to no debris left but also because there was a gross dank smell to the tank. It would disappear after the water change and then be back the next day. I was stumped because the filter sponges were not really dirty and ammonia etc readings were normal.

So today I spent an hour and took apart the entire filter and it was caked in sludge and smelled so bad. I didn't think it could possibly be the problem because I'd just taken it apart for a deep clean 2 months ago in preparation for my Walstad setup, but it was indeed the problem.

I can still see one planaria, but fingers crossed this solves the root of the problem.








The filter is sitting in bucket with water conditioner to make sure there's not bleach left before I put it back, but here's the tank now.


----------



## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Wonderful feedback and confirmation. I once had a dirty filter filled with planaria. Cleaning it solved problem.

Your tank is very nice.


----------



## Endlesserror (Sep 28, 2020)

Thank you! The dank smell from the water is mostly gone too. Do you think the population will just dwindle now that environmental conditions don't favor them?

I'm still seeing planaria so I took mistergreen's advice and tried turkey basting them up. It's a bit of a learning curve but I was able to remove 7 this way. 

Still hoping to avoid adding anything to the tank but also would like to stop seeing them...


----------



## Daz (Aug 15, 2020)

You can bait them with meat, they tend to appear a few hours after dark.


----------



## tiger15 (Apr 9, 2017)

I read conflicting info on whether planaria can harm shrimp, and personally I have never witnessed it. I don't like their look and prefer physical removal to chemical for fear of harming snails and biofilm that shrimplets feed on.

You can suck out planaria with a turkey baster or make a planaria trap with a glass vial and cut ballpoint pen tip. By inserting a ballpoint tip backward into the vial, you can create a funnel trap. Place a food pellet bait into the trap, and you will find trapped planaria soon.


----------



## BoFish (Sep 20, 2020)

tiger15 said:


> I read conflicting info on whether planaria can harm shrimp, and personally I have never witnessed it. I don't like their look and prefer physical removal to chemical for fear of harming snails and biofilm that shrimplets feed on.


I found what I suspect is some kind of planaria attempting to eat a dying shrimp this morning. I have at least a few of the large worms in my tank and my shrimp have been steadily dying since being introduced last week. I'm not sure if a large water change I conducted is stressing the shrimp to death or the planaria can be implicated directly, but I can say for certain they will try to eat living shrimp.


----------



## tiger15 (Apr 9, 2017)

BoFish said:


> I found what I suspect is some kind of planaria attempting to eat a dying shrimp this morning. I have at least a few of the large worms in my tank and my shrimp have been steadily dying since being introduced last week. I'm not sure if a large water change I conducted is stressing the shrimp to death or the planaria can be implicated directly, but I can say for certain they will try to eat living shrimp.


I have several shrimp bowls, each with different plants and type of Neo, and all have planaria. In one bowl for unknown reasons, shrimp do not multiply and slowly die away from old age. I've observed planarian cling on dying shrimp, but not healthy vibrant shrimp which can just dart away. When I pushed the planaria away, the shrimp did not recover and continue to die. I've never observed it in my healthy multiplying shrimp bowl.

Seeing planaria feeding on a dying shrimp is not a proof that planaria prey on healthy shrimp. If a shrimp is already dying, planaria can smell death and act early. Unless you have infestation of planarian everywhere that shrimp have no place to hide, I'm skeptical that planaria is capable of preying on healthy vibrant shrimp.


----------



## Endlesserror (Sep 28, 2020)

Thank you tiger15, bofish, and Daz for your advice! I haven't seen the planaria go after the shrimp yet. I have seen a lot of little empty bladder snails shells appear once I started seeing planaria but since the bladder snails also showed up in their own and the larger ones are doing just fine, I'm not worried about it.

Based on your experiences and because the water quality has improved, I'm going to wait it out and see what happens.

Also, that's so interesting about the one shrimp bowl! I wonder what's going after the shrimplets there.


----------

