Massive Planaria Outbreak

[NoobieFish]

I will admit that probably due to my own negligence over the past 6 month I have been slowly losing fish (my excuse is busy life with 3 young kids).  Just recently my two large breeding pair of BN plecos passed on and I had lost most of the babies prior to that.   I had also lost all my cories over a couple of months before that.  Not sure really why.  Water quality by overt appearance is fine. Clear is water with minimal algae and no smell. The tank has been established over a year, well planted and lightly stocked (72g).  Shockingly, I have not lost any of my school of cardinals, the only fish remaining, only the bottom dwellers.  

The other day after dropping some food in and walking away, my eldest told me to come look and a mountain of planaria had come boiling out of the substrate to eat the food.  Obviously I need to cut back on feeding since the fish population is so low now.  

I was thinking of restocking since things have lightened a bit at home with the youngest baby getting a bit older.  Does anyone have experience with fish that will eat planaria?  Might as well utilize that live food source for the new fish.  I was thinking either angels or some other cichlids.  Maybe bottom dwellers like Kuhlis or cories?  

[Zenzo]

Sparkling gouramis are known to eat planaria, as do livebearers like guppies and mollies. 

The best thing to do is cut their food source. 

[Guppysnail]

I’m sorry for your loss. The excess food and excess planaria could be causing water quality issue that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Are you testing for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. This could be the cause of your fish loss. Even well established long running tanks are subject to ammonia and nitrite spikes as well as a build up of nitrate. Hope this helps.

[EmmaK]

I’ve always heard that tanks with planeria outbreaks tend to lose their bottom dwellers, because the planeria can attach to them with greater ease than schooling/swimming fish. If that’s true, I wouldn’t get more bottom dwellers. I assume someone here knows if that’s the case or not!

Edited February 15, 2022 by EmmaK

[rdflash0788]

So, just to tag onto this post, I wanted to ask a question here as I have been out of the hobby for a while and am just getting back into it now that I am retired. I previously had African cichlids so I never bothered with live plants but thought it'd be fun to mess with. Especially after watching tons of MD Fish Tank vids 🙂

I just cleaned and set up my 75 gallon tank, cleaned the gravel and drift wood to go into it and glued down the large rocks and driftwood yesterday. However, I just went to my LFS to get some plants as I really wanted some moss to put on my wood and after using Gorilla glue gel to stick it to the wood I noticed some "swimmies" in the cups that the moss came in. Some of them looked almost like shrimp but moved really fast while the others were more eel-like, only tiny. After some research, it seems that the latter are planaria as they have the little "arrowhead" at the front. I promptly ripped out what I had glued onto the wood and tossed it as I didn't want to chance ruining my brand new setup. Should I worry about any strays that may have come off of the moss? The tank was dry and doesn't yet have water in it (that was going to be the next step before all of this). Also, I got some Annubias bunches that came from the same tank and were in the same plastic bad. Should I worry about those? Is there any sort of solution/mixture I could dip them in prior to introducing them to the tank? I bought some Panacur C that should arrive tomorrow just in case it is needed. Should I add that to the tank when I do the initial fill up or just hold off for now and use only if I see evidence of the Planaria? 

Thanks in advance for any help/advice and let me know if more info is required and I'll gladly provide it. 🙂

[AndreaW]

On 2/21/2022 at 2:38 PM, rdflash0788 said:

So, just to tag onto this post, I wanted to ask a question here as I have been out of the hobby for a while and am just getting back into it now that I am retired. I previously had African cichlids so I never bothered with live plants but thought it'd be fun to mess with. Especially after watching tons of MD Fish Tank vids 🙂

I just cleaned and set up my 75 gallon tank, cleaned the gravel and drift wood to go into it and glued down the large rocks and driftwood yesterday. However, I just went to my LFS to get some plants as I really wanted some moss to put on my wood and after using Gorilla glue gel to stick it to the wood I noticed some "swimmies" in the cups that the moss came in. Some of them looked almost like shrimp but moved really fast while the others were more eel-like, only tiny. After some research, it seems that the latter are planaria as they have the little "arrowhead" at the front. I promptly ripped out what I had glued onto the wood and tossed it as I didn't want to chance ruining my brand new setup. Should I worry about any strays that may have come off of the moss? The tank was dry and doesn't yet have water in it (that was going to be the next step before all of this). Also, I got some Annubias bunches that came from the same tank and were in the same plastic bad. Should I worry about those? Is there any sort of solution/mixture I could dip them in prior to introducing them to the tank? I bought some Panacur C that should arrive tomorrow just in case it is needed. Should I add that to the tank when I do the initial fill up or just hold off for now and use only if I see evidence of the Planaria? 

Thanks in advance for any help/advice and let me know if more info is required and I'll gladly provide it. 🙂

I would still treat everything you haven't tossed out with Panacur C since you don't have any stock in the tank yet. It only takes one in your tank for an outbreak.

[rdflash0788]

AndreaW- Thanks for the input! I guess since I don't have a cycled tank or any fish in yet that makes the most sense. It'll help me with my patience. 🤪

[Guppysnail]

On 2/21/2022 at 4:38 PM, rdflash0788 said:

Some of them looked almost like shrimp but moved really fast

 Amphipods. Harmless good live fish food. No harm to your inhabitants. Pretty decent clean up crew as well. I have no idea if panacur kills them but if it does not consider them a bonus as some folks my self included like having them.