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I noticed this morning a boatload of tiny white wormies on the front of my cherry shrimp tank....looked them up to be Planaria. How do i get rid of them without hurting my shrimp? I had a pregnant shrimp, who isnt carrying anymore..but i see NO babies, could the planaria have eaten the babies?

This is my first shrimp-only tank, so any advice at all will be greatly appreciated.

ScootersPet wrote:I noticed this morning a boatload of tiny white wormies on the front of my cherry shrimp tank....looked them up to be Planaria. How do i get rid of them without hurting my shrimp? I had a pregnant shrimp, who isnt carrying anymore..but i see NO babies, could the planaria have eaten the babies?

This is my first shrimp-only tank, so any advice at all will be greatly appreciated.

CRS is for Crystal red shrimp
RCS is for Red cherry shrimp
please take care of the abreviation , it is very important to keep them rigth.
babies shrimp can be really difficult to see in a higly planted env for the first week of their life.
usually you can see them on your glass.
i doubt planaria can eat baby shrimp.

sorry for that, i changed the title.

will the planaria hurt my shrimp, there are alot of them

You need to treat the source which is generally over feeding. Stop feeding the shrimp all together and totally vacuum the gravel and do everything you can to remove excess food from the tank.

Add dried and then soaked oak leaves, enough to cover the bottom of the tank. Do 50%/week water changes and only feed a TINY pich of food a week for a while. Shrimp will find food the planaria can not and you'll starve them out.

The worms probably can't hurt the shrimp directly, but the water problems associated with them can stress the shrimp to the point the worms can swarm them once they are sick.

zapisto is right about babies being difficult to see just after hatching, especially if you have any plants at all. Get you magnifying glass and spend some time in front of your tank, hopefully you will see a few which means the others are hiding.

Ok...so far I've done a 50% water change & vaccumed the floor of the tank, i also rinsed off the sponge on the filter intake to remove food and such. Scooped out two dead shrimp (died today) I'll look for oak leaves tomarrow morning...... AND I saw a few babies!! YAY! I counted 6(they move arond alot) so far


Thanks SOOO much!!

ScootersPet wrote:Ok...so far I've done a 50% water change & vaccumed the floor of the tank, i also rinsed off the sponge on the filter intake to remove food and such. Scooped out two dead shrimp (died today) I'll look for oak leaves tomarrow morning...... AND I saw a few babies!! YAY! I counted 6(they move arond alot) so far


Thanks SOOO much!!

good but probably hidding.

tPay attention with all this clean up to not unbalance the cycle of the tank.

Good news I would stay with small water changes for now as not to stress the babies and the shrimp too much. Best wishes and keep us updated.

ScootersPet wrote:Ok...so far I've done a 50% water change & vaccumed the floor of the tank

That's a great way to get rid of you baby shrimp.....

TKD

Lol.....I covered the end of the vacume with a knee high pantyhose and rubberbanded it in place.....


I'll do 30% water changes weekly, and check water perameters often......All of the shrimp are looking good, moving around like normal scavenging for food and carrying on. I have another pregnant shrimp..she has green eggs? I noticed a few baby trumpet snails as well....I'll keep you updated
Thanks

When I vacuum I make a ruckus with the siphone to shoot away the shrimp. I then let the water settle in the bucket and pour off the water through a net, then return any shrimp that didn't move.

ScootersPet, it sounds like thing are working out well and you have a population boom there

Thanks for sharing the vacuum tips. So I guess you can vacuum either way as long as you take precautions.

well i use badflash method, now, after testing the ScootersPet method.
advantage is you can actually remove bigger piece of shit this way

I'll have to try badflash's method, seems like it work out better than mine at picking up leftovers and waste.

Hopefully everything will go well, I moved a single trumpet snail into this tank because the rest died in my 55gal community tank and she had babies, so its looking good.

Just an update.....
No more wormies! yay. The tank is doing beautifully, snails and shrimp are breeding like crazy! Plants are growing well too!