Planaria and Pet Snails?

[Mojie]

Hi all - hoping for some advice on the best way to deal with a planaria invasion. I think they hitchhiked in with some guppies I recently added to my heavily planted neocaradina tank. I have tried cutting feeding way back and glass traps to no avail, so I’m starting to look at chemical treatments.

My complication is that I have three snails (two nerite and a Japanese trap door) in the tank that I adore and no other tanks to move them to. Unfortunately I can’t set up a second tank without violating my condo bylaws. Since it is just the three of them, taking them out of the tank for a few days and popping them in a bucket while I treat it shouldn’t be an issue.

I’ve heard mixed things about when a tank would be safe to put snails back into after dosing with No Planaria (or a different alternative). Does anyone have recommendations for how I can treat the tank and keep my snail-buddies alive and well? You’ll have my eternal gratitude. 

[TheSwissAquarist]

What size tank is it? Most fish in my experience will eat planaria 🙂.

[Mojie]

On 1/3/2023 at 4:36 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

What size tank is it? Most fish in my experience will eat planaria 🙂.

It’s a 15 gallon cube, I’ve got a small school of guppies in it but they don’t seem interested. Do you think it’s worth holding back food for a few days and seeing if they go for them? I’ve thought about it, but I worry I’ll just be training them to eat my baby shrimp lol.

[Latishcia]

Just recently posted something similar to your topic. all I have is shrimp and my baby shrimp and my 10 gallon tank. I'm scared to put anything in my tank because of my baby shrimp in there and I have no clue what to put in there to eat the planaria and not my baby shrimp.

Following your post;

[Miranda Marie]

I don't have any experience with planaria but I do have a huge colony of dream blue neocardina shrimp in a tank with 8 neon green rasboras, 10 ember tetras, and 5 clown killifish and the colony continues to thrive, breed, and maintain a very large number.

Unless you plan to breed the shrimp to sell, I can't imagine you'd see the population die off by adding a few fish or withholding food until the situation dies down. Shrimp breed like rabbits.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 1/4/2023 at 12:05 AM, Mojie said:

holding back food

Could work…no harm in trying, but maybe @nabokovfan87 or @Irene might have some ideas?

[Ben Ellison]

So I have a shrimp tank that got planaria. The planaria killed the shrimp. They also will eat snail eggs or so I read it was a nightmare.

[Mojie]

On 1/4/2023 at 8:36 AM, Ben Ellison said:

So I have a shrimp tank that got planaria. The planaria killed the shrimp. They also will eat snail eggs or so I read it was a nightmare.

Yeah - I’m losing about a shrimp per day to them. I have a big colony so it’s not a crisis yet, but I feel so bad for the little guys. 😞 

Edited January 4, 2023 by Mojie

[nabokovfan87]

For planaria you want to use a trap in addition to planaria meds. Something like "no planaria" or something else that specifically is mentioned to work for that.

Most times you'll need to follow the directions and then heavily siphon the tank. Repeat that 4-6 times for a heavy infestation.

[Mojie]

On 1/4/2023 at 1:45 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

For planaria you want to use a trap in addition to planaria meds. Something like "no planaria" or something else that specifically is mentioned to work for that.

Most times you'll need to follow the directions and then heavily siphon the tank. Repeat that 4-6 times for a heavy infestation.

Thank you - I’ve got the traps going now. My concern with the no planaria is keeping my pet snails alive. Would you have a sense of how long I would have to run carbon, water change, etc. before I could put the snails back in the tank after treating? I’d have to keep them in a vase or bucket in the meantime. 

[nabokovfan87]

Or a tub, but yes. I would run it in two batches for 7-14 days each time in addition to water changes. Meaning, run one batch for 10 days with 1-2 big water changes. Then repeat that with fresh carbon a second time just for safety margin.

[Mojie]

On 1/4/2023 at 1:55 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Or a tub, but yes. I would run it in two batches for 7-14 days each time in addition to water changes. Meaning, run one batch for 10 days with 1-2 big water changes. Then repeat that with fresh carbon a second time just for safety margin.

Thank you - this is exactly the kind of intel I was hoping for. 

[Mojie]

No Planaria has been ordered, as well as a sponge filter for the snail jail and carbon. I’ll let you all know how it goes in case anyone else finds this helpful/useful in the future. Thank you all so much for the help - I really appreciate it!

[Mojie]

Coming back with an update! The No-Planaria worked beautifully, and I haven’t seen a single one since the last treatment. I just reintroduced one nerite to the tank today, and so far so good! She is cruising around very happily, disturbing decor and generally being her chaotic self. I’m keeping a very close eye, but I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to move the remaining snails back soon!

[Mojie]

One final update for anyone else in my situation - all of the snails are now back in the tank and thriving! I think the March introduction may have been a bit fast (nerite started asking a little strange) so I ended up running carbon for another month, but looks like we are now fully in the clear from both a planaria and a snail perspective.