Question About Planaria with Shrimps

nathan515 · Post by **nathan515** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 3:30 pm

From a website here and there, I got that planaria isn't really harmful, but then again other websites say that they secrete a sorta slime or whatever that is potent to shrimps of all kind.

Is this fact or fiction?

tapmxt1 · Post by **tapmxt1** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 3:51 pm

As far as I know, planaria does attack shrimps just molted.

Shrimp&Snails · Post by **Shrimp&Snails** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 5:57 pm

Well arent baby shrimp the absolute wusses?

Hydra eat them...planaria eat them, any fish with a mouth that's barely (or sometimes not even) visible can eat them.....how the heck do shrimp survive in the wild?

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:17 pm

I've been battling with planaria in one of my cherry tanks for a while. I see no indication that the cherries are harmed in any way. These things are just disgusting. Cherries are WAY too quick for planaria. I'd worry more about snails and them not at all.

I switched substrates to pure sand and now these gus can't hide any more. The Turkey Baster of Death is watching!

cheesenips · Post by **cheesenips** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:17 am

To Shrimp&Snails:

Theres a difference between a small enclosed area such as your tanks and the wild. Besides from that there are alot more shrimp. Even if most of the baby shrimp gets eaten in the wild, there would still be enough for the population to survive. Theres a natural balance. The same thing applies to many other animals in the wild (well if humans don't come into the picture that is with overfishing, deforestation, pollution and introducing foreign species, ect. They pose more threats than any other predator in the wild.)

tapmxt1 · Post by **tapmxt1** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:23 am

A single planaria moves slow (compare to a shrimp) and can not actively hunt for or chase after a healty shrimp. But as a group, they will not skip any chance.

Usually the baby shrimps get attacked by planaria are those un-lucky ones (happened to be too close to a planaria or a group of planaria) or sometimes weak ones.

Not sure how I will feel if I see a planaria is eating a RCS baby. But it did drive me nut when I saw a planaria was eating a CRS baby (the planaria was sentenced to die in a spoon of salt).

Post by **Mustafa** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:25 am

tapmxt1 wrote: Not sure how I will feel if I see a planaria is eating a RCS baby. But it did drive me nut when I saw a planaria was eating a CRS baby (the planaria was sentenced to die in a spoon of salt).

Have you actually seen the planaria kill the CRS baby or did you just see some planaria piling up on an already dead baby and eat it? Unless you've seen them actively kill a shrimp, the CRS might have already been dead when the planaria started eating it. I see snails piling up on dead shrimp, too, but I would never even think about snails killing shrimp in my tanks.

Shrimp&Snails · Post by **Shrimp&Snails** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:39 am

Mustafa wrote:
tapmxt1 wrote: Not sure how I will feel if I see a planaria is eating a RCS baby. But it did drive me nut when I saw a planaria was eating a CRS baby (the planaria was sentenced to die in a spoon of salt).
Have you actually seen the planaria kill the CRS baby or did you just see some planaria piling up on a baby and eat it? Unless you've seen them actively kill a shrimp, the CRS might have already been dead when the planaria started eating it. I see snails piling up on dead shrimp, too, but I would never even think about snails killing shrimp in my tanks.

Thanks Mustafa......I had no intentions of even thinking of moving my snails for my shrimp so i'm glad to hear my snails won't start shrimp hunting.

I don't have planaria or hydra in my tank so as soon as the 5 tiny pygmy corys have been moved to my hubby's tank i'm good to go.

tapmxt1 · Post by **tapmxt1** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 11:36 am

See it once with a tiny CRS baby (I rebuilt that tank: moved CRS to a temp tank, bleached the tank, cleaned it thoroughly, refilled the tank, waited and waited..., moved CRS back) .

Note: Before this, I saw a posting about this and I thought the guy was joking because the shrimps can move so fast.

I did not see how it got that baby Crystal Red shrimp. When I saw it, it already had the baby shrimp (probably not very long because baby shrimp's legs were still moving - that drove nut becase it was eating my expensive shrimp alive). However I can not say if that baby shrimp was weak/dying to be caught by a planaria or the baby shrimp just happened got too close to a planaria or both...

But I do not believe a planaria or a snail is able to catch a healty active shrimp - because it is not easy even for me to catch a healthy (selected) CRS (for selective breeding) in the tank.

MAck · Post by **MAck** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:48 pm

Do you know any efficient ways of eliminating planaria?

nathan515 · Post by **nathan515** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 10:25 pm

I think the best way, from what I heard, is at the beginning when the situation isn't as severe. When I saw some planaria in my tank, I basically went around with a really long toothpic like probe and picked them out and killed them. Afterwards I just tried to maintain cleaness in my tanks and they never came back. Maybe thats a method or maybe it was just pure luck.

I think I also heard somewhere here in this forum someone posting that ramshorn snails eat them, must be the slowest chase ever so I don't understand that too much. Basically, prevention as usual is the best way to go and the saying "better safe than sorry". However, sometimes its harder than it seems.

Other methods are basically to empty your tank, which can be extremely hard especially with baby fish and shrimps (I'm lucky to catch 4 out of 8 of my shrimps in my 10 gallon tank with just a few plants), and then turn up the heat where someone in this forum said plants can still sorta survive...forgot temperature, above 100 I believe, or dump medications that kill them, unsure what they are.

Shrimp&Snails · Post by **Shrimp&Snails** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:54 am

Firstly think about how much you're feeding them, how long uneaten food is left in the tank etc. Feed them less and remove uneaten food quicker.

Secondly vaccum the substrate, then check and clean your filter in siphoned tank water.

If this doesn't help then try the other methods mentioned.

nathan515 · Post by **nathan515** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:32 pm

Shrimp&Snails wrote:Firstly think about how much you're feeding them, how long uneaten food is left in the tank etc. Feed them less and remove uneaten food quicker.

Secondly vaccum the substrate, then check and clean your filter in siphoned tank water.

If this doesn't help then try the other methods mentioned.

Um...sorry i'm just new to this whole thing but whats does the word "siphoned" mean?

Shrimp&Snails · Post by **Shrimp&Snails** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:17 pm

siphon
→ n.
1. a tube used to convey liquid upwards from a container and then down to a lower level, the flow being forced initially by suction or immersion and maintained by the different fluid pressures at the tube openings.

Hehe sorry it's water drawn out of your tank via a gravel vac/cleaner. Washing your filter sponges in water drawn out of your tanks keeps the good bio bugs that keep your tank cycled alive.

chlorophyll · Post by **chlorophyll** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 12:43 am

Eliminate rotting materials, change water, decrease places for them to hide, add a hungry macrobrachium, maybe a crayfish or two, don't feed the tank (or feed it very sparingly) til the planaria are gone. That was my method anyway.... they're not visible anymore, but since I never really touched the deep substrate, there are still probably surviving planaria in there. I just don't over feed, and I left in my fearsome macro patrol