Hydra Are Back

So I bred my blue gouramis in a 10gal that had previously had hydra. I figured having a big fish that eats the nuggets would keep them from coming back. I now have about 300 fry going on day #4 right now, along with about 30 RCS. I am going to take all ornaments and plants out and soak in a solution. I am an hour away from going and buying some more alum and making a huge bucket to soak everything for a few days. But the big thing is, if they live in the substrate, how many people would recommend the tedious task of moving fry and removing the gravel from the tank?

I'm currently doing 50% water changes daily with the use of a straw, airline tubing, a 4gal bucket, and gravity. Today I sucked up about 20 fry and did the slow deed of using a 50cc syringe with a straw attached to suck them up, so I can remove the gravel if well advised to.

As I said before, dog dewormer will kill them for good and it shouldn't hurt anything else (didn't for me):

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I know you said you're broke so I looked everywhere for mine (I did have some extra after I dosed my tanks), but I couldn't find any. It's less than $20 most places so it shouldn't take much doing to get ahold of some.

id start doing water changes into buckets (that way if you do catch fry its easy to simply toss em back in there. as for worrying about the worms and what not id simply wait until the fry no longer need that tank. that way u can have a nice clean slate for the next batch of growouts. watch feeding lvls as well (i assume they are living off excess food/waste from the fry) gl to ya hope it all works out.

Hydra are more like sea anemones than worms and they will eat fry if they (the hydra) get big enough. Keep an eye on the fry and be prepared to yank them all.

Well I am surprisingly keeping most of these fry alive. Usually I can't feed enough or water quality goes south. I've noticed one dead on so far, though I'm just assuming the shrimp or BN pleco eats them.

pbmax: are you sure the fry/shrimp will be okay with dog dewormer in the tank? I feel compelled to remove them anyways, and doing it instead with a spice used for pickeling feels a lot safer anyways.

On the other hand, would dewormer remove parasites within the fish and shrimp?

In the tanks where I dosed I noticed no attrition other than the hydra themselves. I kept several species of fish and 2 different species of shrimp in those tanks (RCS and malawa). I did not have any fry in those tanks, but I likely had tons of baby shrimp; I don't recall any slowdown in population growth and I didn't see any dead shrimp at all, but I was also pretty careful with the dosage and I followed the instructions explicitly, including timing of a large water change after dosing.

Can I promise nothing bad will happen if you use it? Absolutely not. Would I dose my tanks with the stuff again if I get hydra again? Undoubtedly.

I have no idea if internal parasites would be affected - that might be worth some searching.

Well I did the dirty deed of removing the fry and other occupants today. I have the gravel, plants, and decorations all soaking in a 4gal bucket with a solution of alum. I will leave it in the bucket for a few days to remove all the nasties, probably mix the gravel daily to make sure everything in it gets exposed.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Good luck!

I'll need it! lol

..I was going to suggest pixy snails they love to eat them. (they also eat other snails )

probably can buy them on line for fairly cheap.

I have no money at this time. But I will do some studying on those snails.

I have some dewormer medicine. I'll be at the GSAS auction if you want some.

Well I doubt I'll be up there, but I'm hoping my scrubbing and soaking pays off! Thank you for the offer though!

I had some in my fry tank, peacock gudgeon apparently eat them as well they are all gone as the fry grew, the tank also has breeding malawa shrimp so, figured the fish ate them.

binbin9 wrote:I have some dewormer medicine. I'll be at the GSAS auction if you want some.

I can pick em up for you if you want Crazed, I'll be there. With a couple of friends

I'll bring some just in case. If you yell out marko I will say polo at the auction. =)