Planaria and breeding shrimp—what to do?

[Nanci B]

Hi everyone, 

 

Two nights ago I saw a weird worm like creature on my driftwood. I did some research and thought maybe it was planaria. The next day, knowing what characteristics to look for found several more and yes they are definitely planaria. 20 long planted tank and the water changes based on stable water chemistry, I do one about every 2 weeks. I don’t gravel vac much at all to leave the mulm for the plants.  
 

so, since I have breeding shrimp in the tank what should I do about the planaria? 
 

Thanks so much! 
 

 

[Tihshho]

Does it have the arrow head? There are other flatworm looking creatures that show up in planted tanks and shrimp tanks that are completely shrimp safe. If you're dealing with the arrow headed ones you will need to get a trap, bait it, and cut back on heavy feeding to the tank. From there you can start to control the population. After the population decreases there are a few medications that are copper free (so shrimp save) that have been successfully used to eradicate the rest of them. Once you medicate, be aware that killing the planaria is going to start to increase ammonia levels due to their dead bodies, so you'll need to be on top of water changes and gravel vacuuming. 

[Nanci B]

Thank you! That seems right in line with what I read. For some reason I thought I heard a long YouTube video where Cory mentioning that planaria weren’t necessarily a problem in a planted tank. At first I wasn’t too worried, but I have new shrimp hatching every few days days/weeks and I don’t anything to happen to them.  I do feed this tank heavily since I have about 12 Pygmy corys, 5 Venezuelan corys and only 4 nano rasboras. I have searching for more chili rasboras to add to the tank but no one has them. Plus 50 or more shrimp. 
 

with so many bottom feeders, but only 4 very small fish, I am not sure how to exactly make sure everyone is getting enough food.

I feed usually 2 foods once a day  Fish flakes and insect bites, or frozen daphnia and hikari shrimp pellets, or freeze dried tubifex worms and golden pearls  

 

so I try to give the nano fish something, but the bottom feeders will eat anything and it’s hard to make sure they both get enough.  

Plus I am leaving for almost 2 weeks soon and was going to increase feeding them and fast them while I was gone

 

Any thoughts on feeding?

 

TIA

 

 

[Colu]

off topic You could get an auto feeder for when your away most medication I can think of to get rid of planaria aren't shrimp safe

[Guppysnail]

There are glass planarian traps to reduce planarian numbers.  Won’t rid you of them but will help control numbers. 

[Nanci B]

Thank you! That seems right in line with what I read. For some reason I thought I heard a long YouTube video where Cory mentioning that planaria weren’t necessarily a problem in a planted tank. At first I wasn’t too worried, but I have new shrimp hatching every few days days/weeks and I don’t anything to happen to them.  I do feed this tank heavily since I have about 12 Pygmy corys, 5 Venezuelan corys and only 4 nano rasboras. I have searching for more chili rasboras to add to the tank but no one has them. Plus 50 or more shrimp. 
 

with so many bottom feeders, but only 4 very small fish, I am not sure how to exactly make sure everyone is getting enough food.

I feed usually 2 foods once a day  Fish flakes and insect bites, or frozen daphnia and hikari shrimp pellets, or freeze dried tubifex worms and golden pearls  

 

so I try to give the nano fish something, but the bottom feeders will eat anything and it’s hard to make sure they both get enough.  

Plus I am leaving for almost 2 weeks soon and was going to increase feeding them and fast them while I was gone

 

Any thoughts on feeding?

 

TIA

 

 

[Nanci B]

@Guppysnail have you have good experiences with the glass traps? 

[Nanci B]

@Colu I thought Panacur C was shrimp safe.  Do you know? 

[Tihshho]

On 9/5/2021 at 3:44 PM, Nanci B said:

For some reason I thought I heard a long YouTube video where Cory mentioning that planaria weren’t necessarily a problem in a planted tank. At first I wasn’t too worried, but I have new shrimp hatching every few days days/weeks and I don’t anything to happen to them.

Planaria don't affect the fish population, but when a shrimp is molting or if there are tons of still soft babies post hatching that have not had a chance to let their exoskeleton calcify, they will end up being meals for planaria.

On 9/5/2021 at 3:49 PM, Colu said:

off topic You could get an auto feeder for when your away most medication I can think of to get rid of planaria aren't shrimp safe

Most are, but there are some out there that are specifically shrimp safe.

On 9/5/2021 at 4:09 PM, Nanci B said:

@Guppysnail have you have good experiences with the glass traps? 

I've used these in the past and they work great. You just have to be sure to empty the traps constantly so the planaria don't work their way out back into the tank. Be sure to get small brushes to clean the trap as well as with long term use they will get filled with algae and hard to see inside.

 

 

[Nanci B]

@Guppysnail Thanks for letting me know what your experiences have been with the glass trap. 
 

Do you think that since I have just started seeing the planaria that the population of them are small or have they overrun the tank? 
 

 

[Colu]

On 9/5/2021 at 9:11 PM, Nanci B said:

@Colu I thought Panacur C was shrimp safe.  Do you know? 

From what I have read it's shrimp safe  the active ingredient in panacur c is fenbendazole I have used fenbendazole before while treating my fish for parasites and that kill all my mts and bladder snails so I would be careful when I when using it with shrimp and snails 

[Guppysnail]

On 9/5/2021 at 4:09 PM, Nanci B said:

@Guppysnail have you have good experiences with the glass traps? 

I have never used them but know a few folks that have and said they work

[Colu]

I was just looking at the amount of active ingredient in panacur c it 222mg of fenbendazole in NT labs anti-fluke wormer I used it was a 1000mg maybe it's Safer to use at a lower dosage

[Ken]

Search Planaria on the forum, then the internet, several of us have beat it. I used Panacure-C following instructions I found on another site, although I did see Irene do a video about it once. It's by far the easiest way and the only thing is hurts is the Planaria and snails.

[darkG]

I've had planaria a while. I have not seen any effect on shrimps. But reluctantly, because they are disgusting, I bought some dog dewormer and tried it, lower dose than suggested (somewhere). It seems to have worked. Besides the planaria, at least one other flatworm variety was killed. No noticable effects on shrimps, seed shrimps, MTS or bladder snails - well, more bladder snail eggs show up, the planaria used to eat them. The smaller critters, not visible without magnification, I have not investigated. Any flatworms are likely destroyed. 

I never came around to try a trap. 

[Ken]

On 9/5/2021 at 4:30 PM, darkG said:

I have not seen any effect on shrimps

I had the opposite experience, I had dead shrimp and snails everywhere. When I first started looking close and realized it was Planaria I looked around on here and everyone said they are harmless... no they're not. They pretty much knocked out my colony of hundreds of shrimp, and I believe weakened them enough that  Cladogonium ogishimae was able to take hold. I "thought" I won the battle each time but really didn't believe it, lots of off-color and sickly looking shrimp. I took the tank down last weekend and bleached the heck out of it. It's sitting in the sun now waiting for my new stand to be ready. There won't be any more shrimp only tanks for me. 

I feel better, thanks.

[darkG]

Dang. I hope my success isn't temporary, that low doses are indeed effective. Unfortunately I didn't note how much I used. 

I never had, I think, large numbers and removed hem manually as I spottted them, so the fact that I don't see any now isn't hard proof. So far so good though. 

They probably came with a used tank. After I cleaned and repopulated it, they were apparently gone, but some time later they showed up in the other tank. 

Edited September 6, 2021 by darkG

[Ken]

On 9/5/2021 at 8:18 PM, darkG said:

Dang. I hope my success isn't temporary, that low doses are indeed effective. Unfortunately I didn't note how much I used. 

I never had, I think, large numbers and removed hem manually as I spottted them, so the fact that I don't see any now isn't hard proof. So far so good though. 

They probably came with a used tank. After I cleaned and repopulated it, they were apparently gone, but some time later they showed up in the other tank. 

I have them in another tank now also, it has Goldring Danios and Hillstream Loaches. They show no interest in the Planaria. The Planaria live in the substrate and I only see them when the lights come on and then disappear quickly. I wonder if that's why the snail population disappeared. 

I keep reading that fish eat Planaria, I wish they would get on with it.

[Tihshho]

I've yet to see any fish in the short time I had planaria even touch them. Nothing had interest. Planaria are known for killing and eating snails as well, so no snails is probably a sign that your planaria population is booming. 

These are one of the few parasites I've dealt with that caused me to tear down tanks and start over. Even got rid of the plants just to be safe. There are medication solutions as some have listed, but at the time I had an issue with them the tank was too small to dose meds without accidently overdosing. 

[Ken]

On 9/5/2021 at 9:16 PM, Tihshho said:

I've yet to see any fish in the short time I had planaria even touch them. Nothing had interest. Planaria are known for killing and eating snails as well, so no snails is probably a sign that your planaria population is booming. 

These are one of the few parasites I've dealt with that caused me to tear down tanks and start over. Even got rid of the plants just to be safe. There are medication solutions as some have listed, but at the time I had an issue with them the tank was too small to dose meds without accidently overdosing. 

I didn't feel terrible about nuking the shrimp only tank (well, I felt pretty bad) but I'm not about to tear down the 20L I see them in now. I'm really proud of how that tank looks and am really fond of the inhabitants. Normally with everything aquarium related I just wait it out. I'm thinking that not the answer this time.

[Ken]

@Karen B. Sorry for the hijack. In your case plan on coming back to a few less shrimp. The Planaria won't get all the shrimp at once especially with the fasting period, but I'd take care of it when you get back. Make sure your biological filtration is up to some extra load.

[Karen B.]

On 9/6/2021 at 12:38 AM, Ken said:

@Karen B. Sorry for the hijack. In your case plan on coming back to a few less shrimp. The Planaria won't get all the shrimp at once especially with the fasting period, but I'd take care of it when you get back. Make sure your biological filtration is up to some extra load.

I think you tagged the wrong person? 

[Ken]

On 9/6/2021 at 5:01 AM, Karen B. said:

I think you tagged the wrong person? 

Sorry it was supposed to be @Nanci B

Edited September 6, 2021 by Ken
@

[Scott P.]

Found this on youtube yesterday. Cheap diy planaria trap. Trap construction starts at the 3 minute mark.

 

 

[Odd Duck]

On 9/6/2021 at 12:44 PM, Scott P. said:

Found this on youtube yesterday. Cheap diy planaria trap. Trap construction starts at the 3 minute mark.

 

 

Nice find!