Will Endlers eat Hydra?

[Jackaroni]

I have a 12 gallon book shelf tank that has recently finished cycling, but still has an over abundance of algae, although it is diminishing. I currently have a crew of Amano shrimp and a couple of Nerite snails to help with clean up, but have now discovered that I have Hydra, A LOT of tiny Hydra. I am not adding any food to the tank as there is plenty of algae to feed the current occupants, so I don't understand why I have this Hydra outbreak.  I am planning on adding Endlers once the algae is under control and would like to know if they will eat the Hydra?  Should I just get a Molly or a Sparkling Gourami first to take care of the Hydra and just toss them in my 55 gallon tank once they've eaten the Hydra and then add the Endlers?  I've been in the hobby for a long time, but this is my first time dealing with Hydra.

[Lennie]

You can get spixi snails. Spixi snails eat hydra!

 

[Guppysnail]

Newer tanks with excess algae often experience hydra even though not being fed tiny particle food or BBS. the algae acts as a perfect breeding ground for microorganisms. Hydra feast on microorganisms. Not having fish to feast on microorganisms the hydra have no food competition. I’m not certain endler will eat hydra. The good news endlers and their babies will voraciously consume all the microorganisms and starve out a good portion of your hydra. When that happens the hydra will cyst up and many are vacuumed out. If you start overdoing powder food and BBS or other tiny live food they will re-emerge. My green and white hydra do not bother fry or shrimplettes. My giant pink m/white hydra can snatch both. I find hydra fascinating so keep them intentionally. 

[smm333]

I tried strawberry rasboras without success. My LFS said sparkling gourami are good, but it was in my shrimp tank, so nope! I got spixi snails and they definately work. 

If I could have found juvenile sparkling gourami I would have jumped on it, and then moved them to a different tank before they grew up. They are a beautiful fish!

[mynameisnobody]

I’m not sure about hydra, but I can tell you my endlers kick the snot out of my cherry shrimp. 

[Jackaroni]

Yikes! I thought Enders would be a good companion for the Cherry Shrimp that I was planning on getting.

[PineSong]

I have Endlers and cherry shrimp. Cholla wood gives the small shrimp places to hide, the large shrimp are not bothered by my endlers. Even so, I do get more baby shrimp and juveniles when there are no fish in the tank.

re: hydra, I freaked out when I had them in my fry growout tank (due to overfeeding, I'm sure). They were eaten by someone, eventually, and there were only guppies and endlers in there. Then they showed up one time in my QT tank, and also disappeared. My advice is don't panic and try the Endlers. If they don't do the trick a molly would be my next go-to. I've yet to see something they don't eat.

[knee]

On 3/9/2023 at 8:17 PM, Jackaroni said:

Yikes! I thought Enders would be a good companion for the Cherry Shrimp that I was planning on getting.

Chili rasboras would be a better companion for them. They still might eat baby shrimp but the risk lessens with these fish.