Hydra Question

Hi there! I accidentally brought home hydra because (for the first time EVER) my LFS had some hydra on their plants, and it was totally my fault for not dipping them in the first place. I would like to use Panacur C (this product) to get rid of it, but I have a few questions:

1. Has any had a good/bad experience with this?
2. Is it deadly to fish/snails/shrimp? (I have all three so it is important that I know what to remove when doing this)
3. Will it kill any of my plants? (I have a paludarium so I am wondering the affects on my aquatic and terrestrial plants...)
4. Is this guide accurate? link: Planaria and Shrimps. How to remove them. - Shrimp and Snail Breeder

I don't have much hydra, and it actually hasn't created a single issue so far, but I want to prevent it from becoming a problem. Because of that, I would like to order this in the next few days to get rid of it and any help with that would be appreciated.

NOTE: this was not caused by my husbandry and tank, I literally went back to the store the next day and saw their tank was really bad. It was just a hitchhiker, and the fact that they aren't really duplicating probably means I don't have as much food in the water as they would actually like. They just didn't have any hydra removal medication there so I'm gonna try to go the cheap and DIY route lol.

 

Hydra will hunt small shrimp and small fish such as tetra. I had some in a (thankfully empty) tank and even the snails wouldn't stray close. When they did, the hydras venom would keep them away. They cause stress, though I believe pearl gouramis like to eat them. Check if they are really hydra by poking with a pencil and see if they curl up.

 

I already know what hydra is and I have confirmed that it is hydra, I just have a few questions about how to get rid of it that are above. I haven't noticed that hunting behavior that you mentioned though but they do react as you said.

 

What fish do you have?


Edit: I just found out that hydra can only be killed by predators and bad water conditions. They DONT AGE.

 

I have ember tetras and galaxy rasboras with a few blue dream shrimp and ramshorn snails. Thanks for the help

 

I have ember tetras and galaxy rasboras with a few blue dream shrimp and ramshorn snails. Thanks for the help

I always wanted blue shrimp but never found them locally and the ones online were too expensive.

 

Does anyone else have experience with my questions?

 

Does anyone else have experience with my questions?

I dont have experience with the specific medicine, but I know for a fact that hydras can and will eat smaller shrimp. I would suggest finding something else from API or Seachem as those are highly regarded brands

 

I have killed hydra 4 times in my tanks . This week I killed most of it in a very small fry grow out tank.
I have killed it outright in cherry shrimp tanks and fish tanks with one dose.

Standard mix of a deworming medication containing Flubendazole will kill the branches in 40 minutes. By 48 hours even the stems should have fallen off.
In a 2.5 gallon shrimp tank I was not able to measure the volume required for such a small tank and freely admit to adding more of the medication without killing cherry shrimp.

 

I have killed hydra 4 times in my tanks . This week I killed most of it in a very small fry grow out tank.
I have killed it outright in cherry shrimp tanks and fish tanks with one dose.View attachment 722604
Standard mix of a deworming medication containing Flubendazole will kill the branches in 40 minutes. By 48 hours even the stems should have fallen off.
In a 2.5 gallon shrimp tank I was not able to measure the volume required for such a small tank and freely admit to adding more of the medication without killing cherry shrimp.

This is why I like coming here to learn good info like this.

 

Does anyone else have experience with my questions?

I used Fenbendazole in dog dewormer similar to Pancur C and it worked marvelously! I did 3 doses to be safe, but all went well. You want 100mg/10g of water. I had a 20g tank and a 2g packet so I mixed it with 200mL of pretty warm water and mixed till dissolved. I dosed 20mL every 48 hours. I hope this helps!

 

Thank you everyone so much! I was mostly worried about my fish/shrimp because I could just pull out my snails pretty easily if needed (I'm going to assume that it is safe for plants too...). This is all very helpful and I found a Fenbendazole that is a little cheaper than the one I was planning on ordering (and people actually left reviews that it killed hydra without dead shrimp that makes me feel a little better!).

Thank you all!

 

Thank you everyone so much! I was mostly worried about my fish/shrimp because I could just pull out my snails pretty easily if needed (I'm going to assume that it is safe for plants too...). This is all very helpful and I found a Fenbendazole that is a little cheaper than the one I was planning on ordering (and people actually left reviews that it killed hydra without dead shrimp that makes me feel a little better!).

Thank you all!

Interested in hearing your results! I have the dreaded hydra and trying to learn as much as possible.