Planaria??

I'm new to the fish hobby. I've had my fish in my aquarium for about 2 and a half months now. I have a betta, 3 neon tetras, 4 cherry shrimp and 5 blue velvet shrimp in an 8 gallon tank.

The betta doesn't ever bother the shrimp. He has noticed them but I've never seen him chase them or show interest in them. They roam the tank freely so they definitely don't feel threatened.

The other day I came home with a new cherry shrimp with berried eggs from the lfs that I got all my fish and shrimp from.

Two days later when I woke up and went to the aquarium I found the new shrimp dead on it's back with the eggs eaten out of her belly. I was horrified.

My 1st thought was my betta. But I wasn't too sure because he's never tried to pursue them and they are so quick and he's so slow. I also try to feed him live daphnia and he doesn't have much interest in those either. He loves his omega one betta buffet pellets.

So as I'm looking around my aquarium I noticed these tiny little white hairs in the substrate and on the glass only about 2mm long. I was wondering where they all came from and then I saw one move so I look closer at all of them and they were all moving!

A quick google search informed me about planaria and nematodes. I really have no clue what I'm dealing with. Later that night I found a baby shrimp hanging out under the java moss.

So I don't know if the momma shrimp was releasing her eggs/babies as they were hatching and my betta saw that and couldn't resist or if this is planaria as I've read they like eggs and can be harmful to shrimp. Maybe the planaria got under her exoskeleton and ate her eggs and killed her from the inside.. all I know is at least one baby made it.

I took a pic of the baby shrimp and you can see in the substrate the white stringy worms I'm dealing with. I also put a magnifier on my phone camera to try and get a close up of them but had a hard time focusing. They range in size most of the ones I see are about 2mm but some look to be as big as 5-6mm. All are about the diameter of a single hair.

I do partial water changes 25-50% every other day. I do tend to overfeed but the food that falls to the bottom doesn't stay very long because the neon tetras eat it off the substrate and plants and the shrimp eat it too. I don't gravel vac because I have fluval stratum.

I bought some no planaria on Amazon that won't be in for a few days. Any suggestion/advice are welcomed and appreciated!

 

Croeso welcome to fishlore
Are you sure they are planaria they look like detritus which can come due to lack of oxygen, no filter, over feeding

 

No, I'm not sure. I have a sponge filter and clean off the sponge once a month. It may be time to change the activated charcoal though. I also have an air stone.
I'll keep up with the cleanings and try to cut back on feeding and see if that helps before I try the planaria treatment.
I'm glad you think it looks like detritus. I was concerned about what could have killed my shrimp.

 

It's very hard to keep perameters constant in a smell tank for shrimp the chances are they have died because of the high and frequent water changes

 

Sometimes cherry shrimp just kick the bucket for seemingly no reason, especially new ones. Could have been stress worsening a pre existing condition. Have any of the other shrimp died?

 

Hi,

There is a few things I noticed.

Your neons need a proper school of 5+. And they will need 10+ gallons.

Is that a possibiliy?

 

I've wanted a bigger tank after having this one set up for just a short period of time just because I want more fish. I haven't gotten a bigger tank though because I just spent a lot of money on this one. Was hoping to keep this set up for at least a year before changing tanks again

Sometimes cherry shrimp just kick the bucket for seemingly no reason, especially new ones. Could have been stress worsening a pre existing condition. Have any of the other shrimp died?

Only the 1 shrimp died. She had berried eggs. She was dead on her back and looked like the eggs were eaten out of her but I found a baby shrimp under the java moss later that night so I don't know what happened