Hydra

[Mike Hu]

Hi everyone,

I’m cycling a 30l tank and I seem to have a hydra infestation.

Does anyone know if paros would eat hydra? If not I understand sparkling gouramis will eat them so would it be ok to mix sparkling and licorice gouramis in a little community?

Hydra is quite a common problem so I wonder how you guys deal with this. Or maybe its not really a big deal?

Thanks

[Peter Finke]

We in the middle of Europe most effectively deal with Hydra by using Flubenole. This is a white powder not to be bought in pet shops but in pharmacies or with veterinarians only. It is put on the water surface in very small quantities (“a knife’s pit”), and even if there is no circulation it will definitely destroy Hydra within 36 hours. You can observe them contracting within the first half of this time and they disappear without leaving any of them left within the second. The substance is without any harm to fish, but may affect snails. But snails should not be kept in Parosphromenus breeding tanks.

Licorice gouramis will never eat Hydra. In community tanks one can have a try with Colisa or Trichogaster, but that will work only if the fish are really hungry and have no feeding alternatives. In a planted tank they will never get all Hydra cleaned.

In my view there is no alternative to Flubenole. It’s harmless and very effective indeed.

[Mike Hu]

Thanks for the advice Peter,

I’ll look out for flubernole but it seems to be listed on the internet as a pig wormer.??

Is the threat of hydra simply for predation against fry? My tank seems to have a lot of little unidentified inverts and I suspect that is good for micro predators such as paros. I’m sure if I use the treatment you have suggested these inverts would die also.

How big a problem is Hydra really? Is it a sign of good water quality or maybe poor water conditions? The presence of these small animals suggests to me that my tank may be ready to accept fish soon.

Anyway, will keep you “guys” 🙂 ….and dolls updated.

[Bernd Bussler]

Hydra sind Nesseltiere ähnlich wie Seeanemonen, für erwachsene Paros sind sie nur unangenehm das sie bei Berührung nesseln, aber für junge Paros sind sie gefährlich. Sie sterben am Gift oder werden von ihnen gefressen. Eine Hydra kann leicht ein Beutetier das dreimal so groß ist wie sie selbst leicht überwätigen. Flubenol bekommst du bei einem Väterenär, aber bedenke, auch Schnecken und andere Weichtiere sterben daran und können dann das Wasser verseuchen und somit auch die Fische töten.

[Soo Xi Wei]

Previous few encounter with hydra in my wild betta tank is either I completely clear the tank, totally black out from light for a few weeks or to wait for it to disappear naturally without any modification.

Being a lazy hobbyist who don’t change water frequently, I prefer to let them go off naturally from the tank although it took quite a long time to happen

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