# Hydra



## Lord Nibbler (Dec 22, 2005)

My nursery tank has recently had a hydra infestation. Fortunately, the rainbow fry I have are large enough that it isn't a problem. However, the rainbows are still breeding so it will be in the future.

Not having a spare aquarium (and recently spent much to set up the nursery), how can one get rid of them without adding large fish that would eat the fry?


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Try spot dosing some H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) on them. Just a mL or so on each spot them appear. Don't go too overboard or it can poison the fish as well. I wouldn't do more than 1 mL per gallon of water.


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## Lord Nibbler (Dec 22, 2005)

Sounds good. I moved the largest hornwort to a main aquarium where fish are capable of eating them (or at least the hydras will starve). I'll try spotting the ones on the glass.


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## rodinia (Jul 10, 2006)

I've got something funny going on in my tank. I've got little white specks on my glass. I can't tell if they are typical aquarium funk or something more....They do appear to be anchored to the glass and they do appear to move but they are so tiny, merely specks. I found information for ridding aquarium of hydra. I believe mine (assuming they're hydra) are a result of feeding frozen bloodworms (assuming hydra can survive being frozen). It seems the infestations have resulted both times post bloodworm feeding.
I've scraped my glass down with an algae pad and did a water change. Hopefully, this will cut down their numbers....
This is the info I found 
Treatment
In the past, the only way I found to eradicate hydra successfully was to sterilise the tank with a chlorine solution. Some copper medications claim that they will kill hydra but they can also be deadly to the fry. Other treatments usually recommended include ammonium nitrate, quinine sulphate, raising the temperature to 40°C for 15 minutes or more, and adding salt until the hydra are killed. An even more elaborate treatment I read once was the use of a 9V battery connected to leads that fed into the aquarium water. Most of these treatments simply do not work and in addition, they can be harmful to the young rainbowfish fry.

_A product called Dactycid manufactured in the Netherlands is very effective in killing hydra and is very safe to use with small fry. Another product called Flubenol (flubendazole) is also very effective against hydra used at 1-2 mg/L. I have used both chemicals with rainbowfish fry only 10 days old, without any problems. Panacur (fenbendazole) a similar chemical, has also been reported as an effective control for hydra used at 2 mg/L.

Pre-dissolve the chemical in a container with some aquarium water, and then pour it in the aquarium. After 5-7 days, following treatment, do a 50% waterchange.

Note: These chemicals are very toxic to other invertebrates and snails. _


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Fluke tabs work very well. Just not with inverts...


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## Lord Nibbler (Dec 22, 2005)

Excellent, I have no invertebrates in the tank that I am aiming to keep!


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## Erirku (Oct 5, 2004)

I have tried all the methods, and they haven't worked so successfully!!! I have tried spot treatment with H202, and that doesn't work at all. The most funniest treatment I used was the Fluke tabs, what a waste of money. It turned my whole tnak blue for a couple hours, and I still saw those hydras. I even doubled the dose and they still didn't drop dead!
The most cumbersome method I do, is using a skinny paint brush and brush them off vigorously, into the vac when I'm doing a water change. Look carefully at the substrate and use a tweezer to take out each single substrate piece and throw it away. Use a razor and vac it while I suck them up carefully to not lose them to the tank. The slowest method that really works, is using plenty of ramshorne snails. It took awhile, but after starving them in the tank, they slowly started to eat the hydra. I hope this helps!


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Blue? Fluke tabs? Are we talking about the same thing?

Fluke tabs totally wiped mine out in a few days. YMMV of course.


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## Riba (Feb 9, 2006)

I myself used Flubenol (flubendazole) against planaria, but I've read that it kills hydra's as well indeed. Only snails do not like it (shrimps couldn't care less).


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## wiste (Feb 10, 2006)

You could temporarily remove the fish and raise the tank temperature until the hydra die. About 45C for 5 minutes.


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

Hydra take hold when their is a lot of leftover food, which is why it is a common occurence in breeding tanks. I believe the best solution is to use scavengers such as snails (MTS, etc.) and shrimp to eat all the uneaten food.

Does anyone know what eats it? I believe Gourami sp. like to munch on it, especially the Pearl species.


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## dhavoc (Mar 17, 2006)

i have the start of an infestation right now. peroxide is a waste of time, they curl up but are back feed in minutes. added rams horns so i will see if that works. wierd thing is this is a CRS tank and i dont feed much at all, maybe a pellet every few days. there is brown algae and the shrimp seem content eating that to the point of ignoring the food pellet. no fleas as i remove them as soon as i see them (they decimated my mosses in another crs tank) and feed them to my dwarf puffer. no copapods or other small inverts that i can see for them to eat either. hopefully they will both starve and the snails get them. havent found anything that is shrimp safe yet, and removing them and heating the tank is not an option, as i am loath to rip up a tank i just got to where i like it to chase every one of the shrimp down...

searched but never found an answer, will dwarf honey gourami's eat hydra?


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## Riba (Feb 9, 2006)

I understood that a Blue Gourami would help. You could try the flubenol (flubendazole), if it's available at your place. If you're interested, I can provide the required concentration, etc. (In the Netherlands, flubenol is used to kill planaria (especially in shrimp tanks). As side effect it is reported to also kills hydra.).


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## dhavoc (Mar 17, 2006)

Riba, so flubenol is ok with shrimp? my hydra are in my CRS tank so i dont want to take ANY chances. if the snails and smashing dont work I may have no choice..... also, does it affect the bacteria in the filters?


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## Riba (Feb 9, 2006)

I used it without any problems in my CRS tank  (and I am not the only one). Also no havoc to the bacteria in the filter. Only most snails do not like it, so remove them prior.


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