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How do I clean glass covered in hydra without making more hydra?

Rube_Goldfish

By Rube_Goldfish,
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Rube_Goldfish Mentor

Rube_Goldfish

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I have a 20 gallon long that I've been feeding freshly hatched brine shrimp into and now I've got a lot of hydra in there. That's okay, because they're not harming any of the inhabitants and while I don't love the look of them, they're pretty interesting little creatures in their own right, so whatever.

But a lot of them are on the front pane of glass, and that's recently developed a lot of what I think is diatom algae. Normally, I'd just scrape it off with a razor blade or a melamine sponge, do a quick water change, and that would be that. But I know that damaging the bodies of hydra just makes more hydra. So what can I do?

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Fish Folk Grand Master

Fish Folk

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On 1/16/2024 at 4:52 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

I have a 20 gallon long that I've been feeding freshly hatched brine shrimp into and now I've got a lot of hydra in there. That's okay, because they're not harming any of the inhabitants and while I don't love the look of them, they're pretty interesting little creatures in their own right, so whatever.

But a lot of them are on the front pane of glass, and that's recently developed a lot of what I think is diatom algae. Normally, I'd just scrape it off with a razor blade or a melamine sponge, do a quick water change, and that would be that. But I know that damaging the bodies of hydra just makes more hydra. So what can I do?

Yeah… just scrape them off, and try to quit feeding BBS for a while. They’ll disappear eventually. I use a library card 📚 😂

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MandatoryDenial Newbie

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I am pretty certain sparkling gourami's eat them.  I have watched mine browse them on many occasions.  There is also a product that killed it for me called Noplanaria.   When I was having trouble with these things in fry tanks, the Noplanaria killed it within a day.  It didn't hurt the fry either.

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Rube_Goldfish Mentor

Rube_Goldfish

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On 1/16/2024 at 8:36 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

I’ve been able to use a siphon to scrape them off, and then they get instantly sucked down the siphon and into a bucket. I use a thicker 3/8” hose that can be sourced from a hardware store 

I didn't think that siphoning/scraping them off would work, but why not give it a try? Thanks!

On 1/16/2024 at 7:54 PM, MandatoryDenial said:

I am pretty certain sparkling gourami's eat them.  I have watched mine browse them on many occasions.  There is also a product that killed it for me called Noplanaria.   When I was having trouble with these things in fry tanks, the Noplanaria killed it within a day.  It didn't hurt the fry either.

I have honey gourami in another tank that probably gets even more BBS per gallon than this one, so I suspect that they (or something!) is eating hydra in there, but I've never actually seen them do it. Hydra, or at least the ones in my tanks, are so small! And while I've heard that No Planaria works well, I'm shying away from chemical solutions since the hydra are more of an eyesore than a real problem, and I've got a ton of snails in this tank.

On 1/16/2024 at 4:59 PM, Fish Folk said:

Yeah… just scrape them off, and try to quit feeding BBS for a while. They’ll disappear eventually. I use a library card 📚 😂

And I use a hotel room key card I forgot to give back on check-out (along with the ACO algae scraper melamine sponge). And I'm trying to condition a pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides to spawn in this tank, so I've been giving them BBS, and getting hydra as a side effect.

But I'll try @AllFishNoBrakes 's idea with the siphon, and report back with the results.

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Fish Folk Grand Master

Fish Folk

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On 1/16/2024 at 9:08 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

I'm trying to condition a pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides to spawn in this tank, so I've been giving them BBS

If you can, try Daphnia, White worms, and Black worms instead. 

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Guppysnail Grand Master

Guppysnail

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I wait until water change. Then use a melamine pad to wipe them off the front glass that’s out of the water. I then take a paper towel dampened with hydrogen peroxide to wipe the exposed glass and dry it with a paper towel and refill the tank. 
 

 

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Rube_Goldfish Mentor

Rube_Goldfish

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On 1/16/2024 at 9:35 PM, Fish Folk said:

If you can, try Daphnia, White worms, and Black worms instead. 

I am looking to buy a grindal worm culture from a local vendor, so hopefully that's close enough! I've wanted to culture daphnia for ages but I just don't think I've got the space for it at the moment.

On 1/16/2024 at 9:49 PM, Guppysnail said:

I wait until water change. Then use a melamine pad to wipe them off the front glass that’s out of the water. I then take a paper towel dampened with hydrogen peroxide to wipe the exposed glass and dry it with a paper towel and refill the tank. 
 

 

So the melamine wipe gets the bulk of them, and the hydrogen peroxide gets whatever bits I may have missed/broken? Makes sense!

On 1/16/2024 at 9:50 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

I just go slow and be careful. Work it a section at a time 

Wish me luck!

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jwcarlson Grand Master

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Does No Planaria kill snails for a long period of time after application, as well?  Hydra seemingly appeared overnight in my CPD tank which was weird after a year+ of twice a day BBS without Hydra.  Maybe they were eating them before and I should starve them for a couple days and they'll graze on them.  My apisto tanks are absolutely overrun with hydra and while it's not a "problem", how do I know that it isn't a problem?  

Additionally, I feel like it's just going to come back.  I went 2-3 months without feeding BBS in my apisto tanks and the minute I started feeding them BBS again, the whole tank is overrun.  Spixi snails have been the only reasonable method I've found to keep them moderately in check, but some of my apistos snap and turn into spixi killers apparently and one of them killed 8 of my 11 snails over the course of about 12 hours a month or so ago.  So I'm down to just a few.  Hydra might not be completely gone when I've got spixi snails, but they absolutely do a great job of keeping them in check.

 

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Lennie Grand Master

Lennie

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I saw someone mentioning this product in our local forum. It claims to be shrimp and snail safe but I have never tried. Just dropping here, maybe it helps. It claims to kill both planaria and hydra 

 

 

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jwcarlson Grand Master

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On 1/17/2024 at 7:16 PM, WhitecloudDynasty said:

If you don't kill them off they will always be in the aquarium even if you can't see them. I use a goat deworm. When I use to have hydra I never get any white cloud fry

Do you find that they stay gone even if feeding BBS regularly?

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