Hydra control

MoltenLava · Post by **MoltenLava** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:21 am

So I have these a couple of snails in my shrimp aquarium. They look like apple snails. I believe they are either Cana's or Brig's. I didn't appreciate their huge appetite in the beginning, but then I just realized that they might be devouring the Hydras in my tank. I have Hydra outbreak that I am still contemplating how to deal with. But I noticed the Hydra colony is mainly on the plants. There aren't any of them on the subtrate. There are very few of them on the glass. Yesterday I saw a few of them on the subtrate, but they are completely gone today. They were either eaten or driven off. Whatever it is, it worked for me. Now all I need to treat are the plants and the large rocks that the snails don't climb to often. That's very convenient for me because I can't afford the heat treatment on the entire tank, with a couple of berried females and all. I was almost at the point going to the pet store to buy a couple of three spot gouramis. While the gouramis might have helped with the Hydra outbreak, they could have wiped out the new shrimp hatchlings that I am expecting soon.

In any case, I'd like to add that in addition to three spot gouramis, 110F heat treatment, and hydrogen peroxide, certain types of snails can be a nice biological remedy for the Hydra outbreaks. Combined with the selected heat treatment of the stuff that snails don't get to, it could work very well for eradicating the Hydra outbreak in the tank.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:45 am

This is great news for anyone with a hydra problem. Thanks for sharing your discovery

Post by **Mustafa** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 7:10 am

Ramshorn snails supposedly work, too. And they will also go on the plants. Totally forgot to mention this before.

nemesis1337 · Post by **nemesis1337** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:09 am

i used to have tons in my tank. what seemed to work for me were male endlers. i chose them because they had small enough mouths that it wouldn't be as destructive as the female. anyways, i scraped off the hydra on the glass and the endlers ate them. now i don't see one hydra at all.

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:33 pm

The main benefit of being able to use snails is the fact that they will not harm newly hatched baby shrimp while other methods would.

nemesis1337 · Post by **nemesis1337** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 3:46 pm

Neonshrimp wrote:The main benefit of being able to use snails is the fact that they will not harm newly hatched baby shrimp while other methods would.

that's true but i've tried ramshorn snails and they aren't nearly as effective for me. plus it is invasive just like many other snails.
also, if you have hydras and otos in the same tank, you should remove the otos. i noticed my otos had several red spots on their body when hydras were around.

ShrimpFan · Post by **ShrimpFan** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 8:46 pm

Mustafa wrote:Ramshorn snails supposedly work, too. And they will also go on the plants. Totally forgot to mention this before.

I had a large ramshorn snail and it would avoid the hydra in my tank. Hydra are related to jellyfish and have stingers, which is probably why the snail avoided them. It was actually interesting to watch--the snail would be going up the glass and when it went over a hydra it would try to pull its foot (the muscular part of the snail that enables it to move) out of the way, and so it would make a little "bubble" in its foot as it glided over the hydra.
So, in my experience Ramshorns don't work, and they also eat a lot of the plants in the tank and make quite a bit of waste. But, they have sweet little faces.

Gregor Samsa Mendel · Post by **Gregor Samsa Mendel** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:43 pm

I have also witnessed ramshorn-hydra confrontations where both sides beat a hasty retreat. My snails were pretty small (1/2"), though. But apparently bigger ramshorns don't like hydra either. From what I've seen and heard, hydra generally disappear from a tank after a month or two, unless you are feeding lots of live planktonic food like baby brine shrimp.

Post by **Mustafa** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 7:29 am

ShrimpFan wrote:So, in my experience Ramshorns don't work, and they also eat a lot of the plants in the tank and make quite a bit of waste. But, they have sweet little faces.

Thanks for your experience. I have never had personal experiences with hydra, so I was just relating what some people I know have reported. However, we might be talking about different species of "ramshorn" here. My ramshorn snails *never* touch any plants at all, although the "giant ramshorn", Marisa cornuarietis, (actually in the apple snail family) does...a lot.

There are also some reports of European ramshorn snails eating some plants occasionally. What we have in our aquaria here in North America are Planorbella duryi (Seminole-Ramshorn), a species formerly endemic to Florida but now occuring all over the world since it has been introduced through aquarium plants. The European ramshorn is Planorbarius corneus. It is this snail that was reported to me as a hydra eater.

But who really knows if they really do or not or if it's just individuals eating hydra but not necessarily every individual of the whole species...at this point it's all just hearsay without personal experience.

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 9:37 am

On a few occasions, I have had hydra in tanks holding fish. Each time, they have "bloomed" for no more than 2 weeks and then vanish.

I would try the simplest things first. Increase water change frequency and maybe back off on feeding your shrimp. I'd be surprised if they didn't just go away on their own soon enough.

ShrimpFan · Post by **ShrimpFan** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 10:07 am

Mustafa wrote: My ramshorn snails *never* touch any plants at all, although the "giant ramshorn" (actually in the apple snail family) does.

I think the one I had was the giant ramshorn. It had yellow and brown stripes and ate a lot of my plants. Thanks for the info...it makes sense that those are actually related to apple snails, considering how much they eat. Anyhow, it wasn't much help with hydra, however my bamboo shrimp did sit on it for a little while when the snail was cruising by the filter output, haha!