Hydras outbreak...

guntank0079 · Post by **guntank0079** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 8:28 am

Hi, everyone!

With the appearance of copepods, tiny worms and alike, as they are tiny in size, it's kind of fun to watch those micro-organisms living on the side...
And they can be another food source for my RCS...

The interesting in fact didn't last long until the hydras appeared. They are getting bigger and bigger, and they really spreaded all over the tank in a week...

Is there any effective way to remove the "hydras" from the RCS tank?
Please advise!

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 8:43 am

Hi, here is a thread that will help you deal with your problem. If you still have questions you can try to search "hydra" and other topics.

viewtopic.php?t=1720&highlight=hydra

guntank0079 · Post by **guntank0079** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 5:18 pm

Thanks for the link, Neonshrimp!

Now, I realized it was probably caused by the baby brine shrimps I put a few days ago...the hydras are just everywhere you can name inside the tank...

Again, feedings always cause many of my problems on fishes and shrimps...

Thanks again!

guntank0079 · Post by **guntank0079** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 11:45 pm

Finally found an effective way to control the hydras outbreak:

Snails, the hydra killer, without disturbing your tank, nor introdcing any chemicals.

My snails drag along any hydras on their paths until those devils are no longer seen...

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 6:55 am

Can you post a picture of the snails you have? Most snails won't touch them. Mine don't.

guntank0079 · Post by **guntank0079** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 8:32 am

Not a good photo...as it was surfing relatively fast then other ramhorns...
Well, I got this one when I purchased my plants...

guntank0079 · Post by **guntank0079** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 8:41 am

When I have the chance, I may take a continuous shots on how they ram the hydras...

zapisto · Post by **zapisto** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 8:47 am

very interesting.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:21 am

Yes, these look like typical European Rams. I keep red rams and they are the same species, but I've never seen them eat hydra. The browns may have a different taste though. I've seen reports that they also eat brown algae.

I have few hydra any more, so it isn't an issue. Hydra outbreaks seem to come with overfeeding and dissapear quickly.

guntank0079 · Post by **guntank0079** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:18 pm

It all happened after I introduced live brime shrimps to the planted shrimp tank...(thanks to Neonshrimp help to figure that out!)

I tried siphoning first, then reduced feeding, reduced and lowered lighting and they just keep coming back...although it wasn't as worse as in the first place...

Finally, with the help of my snail friend, it was so obvious that right the way 90% of the hydras were gone the next day. That's when I paid attention to my snail friend how she did that...

As soon as my snail friend passes by them, she will change direction dramatically and took care of the hydras.

Hydras are tough. Once they have established, it's difficult to remove them 100% from existing conditions of the shrimp tank (unless completely nuke the tank). There are still sometimes one or two on the run here or there, but I am proud to say that the outbreak problem is contained and is totally under control now.

Post by **Mustafa** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 6:02 pm

badflash wrote:Yes, these look like typical European Rams.

Just a little clarification. The real European Ramshorn, Planorbarius corneus, is a relatively rare, cold-water ramshorn. I used to catch them when I was a kid in Germany, but they have become extremely rare. They never lasted long in a tropical tank and I never got them to reproduce. They did get much larger than our "normal" ramshorns, though.

Our "normal" ramshorns, including the reds, blues, pinks (you name it)....are Planorbella duryi, which is naturally endemic to Florida. Through the aquarium trade it has spread all over the world. Some people mistakenly called some color variations of Planorbella duryi "European Ramshorn" because they got them from Europe. In fact, you will see tons of refernces (wrong ones) out there on the internet and even in aquarium hobby literature referring to our "normal ramshorns" as Planorbarius corneus. This is, unfortunately, another misconception that spread like a wildfire.

Anyway, don't want to turn this into a snail discussion (that's what our snail section is for after all) but thought I should set things straight.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 7:39 pm

Learn something new every day.

Mustafa, could this explain why some have reported planaria and hydra eating rams, as well as brown rams that eat brown algae? I brought back some cold water brown rams from Lake Ontario. They have yet to lay eggs. I wonder...

zapisto · Post by **zapisto** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 5:52 am

badflash wrote:Learn something new every day.

you say it

Post by **Mustafa** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:20 pm

badflash wrote:
Mustafa, could this explain why some have reported planaria and hydra eating rams, as well as brown rams that eat brown algae?

--Not exactly sure what you mean. All the rams out there in people's tanks are the same. I'm sure the different reports about what they are eating depends on what alternatives are available in any given tank.

I brought back some cold water brown rams from Lake Ontario. They have yet to lay eggs. I wonder...

They may need a cold period for reproduction. Or...you may not have both genders if they are not hermaphroditic. Who knows...you may want to post pictures of them in the "other inverts" section of this forum for further discussion.