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Hi all.
I have a small amount of hydra in 2 of my paro tanks. Having read through the past posts I see that flubendazole is the recommended treatment.
I have found this for sale as a pig wormer, but it is only available in large quantities.
However I have found “Kusuri wormer plus” which is a flubendazole based treatment for worms, flukes etc, sold for discus. It does have a minute amount of calcium carbonate added (0.01g in a 5g pack), to buffer against a slight ph drop. Do you think this will be a problem? Here is a link to the product.
http://plymouthdiscus.com/ocretail/pd/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=139
Does anyone have any experience of using this product? Do you think it will be ok for use with paros?
This problem is hard to avoid from time to time if you use natural plancton. Some fish are able to eat them if they have nothing else to ffed on. Did you try that? If you have no experience with using some kind chemicals with Paros I would use the good old way that is very efective and safe. If you have any kind of hydra that does not have symbiotic algae to help them survive (is not green) you can try to starve them to death first. . Just use for example black (Culex mostly), white (Chaoborus) or other kind of mosquito larvae. Something big that they will most likely not catch becouse it will not spread over the tank before its consumed by fish. It sometimes works well if your fish are eager enough eaters, unless you have alot of infusoria or rotifera living in your tanks. Limitation of light would be necessary with the green ones. In such case remove the fish as no light for several days would not be good for them , natural fotoperiod is very important. If you are unsuccesful starving them this way, use a little piece of soft copper (some kind of wire or so) and just hang it in the water of the tank. Hydras tentacles will start to shorten and as they loose them you can already remove the copper. Hydra will die of starvation.In the very soft and acidic water this could take hours and the copper disolved in the tank water will bond to organic matter like detritus, peat, leaves and stuff. It works well enough to kill the hydra before the level of disolved copper starts to be dangerous for fish. If you want to be realy safe, just remove the fish for the treatment. How quickly it works is dependent on ammount of organic material in the tank for the copper ions to bond. If you clear the tank it will work faster but of course the level of toxic copper ions will be higher.Do not use it with eggs in the tank. This way you dont have to risk contamination of the tank environment with potentialy harmful substances. I hope that helps. + If you want to prevent the hydra from getting in to your tanks, next time you bring the plancton home, leave it in some bucket for like an hour and than pour it somewhere else. The hydra will attach to the first bucket and you dont have to solve this problem that often.
Copper is a heavily toxic substance which should be avoided in an aquarium at any means. It’s nonsense to speak negatively about “chemicals” and positively about copper.
In Germany we use “Flubenol” against Hydra with a success of 100% and no risk for delicate fish at all. I do not know which is the name for the white powder in other countries. Mixed substances which are composed of that substance including others for the sake of other purposes should be avoided; try to get the pure Flubenol. It may be diffcult to find; you certaily will not find it in pet shops. Try special chemical dealers in the internet. The smallest amount will be enough for many years.
Using it in practice, you only need the smallest amount of it (a knife’s tip), it will spread over the water surface immediately and two or three days later all Hydra are gone. Hours after application you see the first reaction already. Even if you use it in double or triple quantity it will do no harm to the fish.
With any form of copper you play vabanque with the ecosystem of your tank.
In France we use Dolthene against Hydra. It’s a vermifuge for dogs available on pharmacy and it works good.
No problem with the fishes.[quote=”Davy” post=3350]In France we use Dolthene against Hydra. It’s a vermifuge for dogs available on pharmacy and it works good.
No problem with the fishes.[/quote]
Yeah thats what Flubendazol (active substance of flubenol) and Mebendazol are too.Well I was not speaking negatively about all chemicals and of course using for example copper sulfate and dosing it in to the tank is very dangerous. The method with soft piece of copper metal was suggested by RNDr. Stanislav Frank in his books where he describes this way as quite safe as you dont get high concetration quickly and if you watch it closely you can use it quite safely as the concentration that becomes highly toxic for hydra are usually not dangerous for the fish yet. I think we can agree that most of the substances we use to get rid of parasites or pests are usually just less harmful for fish than for these organisms. If flubenol is safe for use with Paros, its great. I have used above stated method many times even with some quite sensitive SA imports. But you are right Peter, there may be methods that are safer for use for people who are newer to the hobby.
If there are problems give me your address and I’ll send you a baggie Flubenol. I still lie about 500gr and do not mind spending a little off.
Greetings BerndHello!
I don’t understand that panic about those unplanned guests (o.k. I wasn’t pleased about my little dragonflies in my new tank, but I’ve got them out just by searching them out in a nearly emptied tank)’.
Once I’ve also had hydra in another tank, we tried to get them out with wooden sticks. But they vanished before I could bring some to a teacher of biology who wished to get them.Also we got planaria as unwished guests, I catch them out with a meat trap.
I would never risk some chemical substances in the tank.I would rather make a new tank for the fish and shrimp than to use any poison!
I guess we have much more unknown guests in our tanks than we want to know.
And nevertheless, it’s always a way of biological balance …Thankyou all for your helpful advice.
I really dont like to add chemicals to my aquariums unless I have too. However if something is tried and tested and is not harmful to my fish then that should be ok.
Thankyou very much Bernd for your kind offer, I will send you a personal message with my details. This will ensure I am treating my fish with the correct medication.
OK
I do not often Hydra, but as I’m starting to 95% of my food in the great outdoors and’ll feed my fish does that happen now and then. I have never lost a fish by Flubenol. However, all die snails, planaria and other molluscs. Since I have no shrimp I can not tell you how they react to it.Hallo!
My last post in this thread is quite a while old – and my last hydra invasion was much older …At this moment I just begin to loose a bit my contenance concerning hydra – look at the photos …
They are in my tank where my new phoenicurus live … brought from nature, living food from my garden, surely.
They stay since about three weeks, and they are becoming not fewer …
I cleaned the java moss two weeks ago with salt water and then with mineral water. I tried to get them from the glass with my water change tube.But now I m back again from a journey and they still have become more.
I am shortly before to make a new tank ….. but I don’t want to work with chemical products … :unsure:
It just goes with Flubenol. If you no longer feed them it will be less but they remain. Also a new aquarium will not help, somewhere is always a left and multiplies.
Hello!
Now it seems that my hydra are gone! (this time with flubenol 😉 )
This morning I made a water change in my P. phoenicurus tank, this evening I will do in my still not really black water 100l tank. The 100l tank (with just 60 l Water) has also shrimps as inhabitants and bladder snails. Both species seem not to be disturbed by the flubenol till now, but the hydras have vanished….
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