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Hydra in my apisto tank - seeking advice

JeffInKentucky

New Member
Messages
18
Location
Kentucky
I have discovered hydra in my apisto tank that has a pair of borellii opals that appear to have spawned - female is guarding the cave. Given that I can’t manually remove the hydra because of where it’s located, I’m thinking my best bet is Planaria Zero as described at https://fishlab.com/aquarium-hydra/. Does anyone have any experience with it and/or have other short-term solutions given that I should have fry any day now?
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,959
Location
Germany
You want to possibly safe that spawn, do it by hand.
Using such a poison (let's face it, it's nothing else), while there are eggs and/or fry, will make you lose the spawn very surely.
I manual is absolutely not going to happen get used to the fact that you might have to wait for the next time they spawn.

Also, unless you have a way to rehome the fry regularly you might want to actually stop them from successfully breeding.
 

Samala

Active Member
Messages
99
Location
Oviedo, FL
One more thought: I had green hydra in my main tank, at least 20 that I could easily see (it's a jungle), and constantly have borellii fry of some age in there. At the time I used Panacur the youngest fry were two weeks post free-swim. Did not seem to impact the little guys. I did drop in an extra airstone and fretted about ammonia spikes from dying hydra but it worked out well. Suspect all the plants helped absorb fluctuations.

Also, even with hydra certainly present before treating, I still had many survivors from earlier spawns. Definitely not the entire spawn, but many and survival rate might have been down to other factors beyond hydra predation. So, if I were in your shoes, I might hold off until any fry are a week or so past free swim to treat.

Hope this helps!
 

apistobob

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
161
Location
N.W. USA
I've had good luck using salt to control hydra. They die off at low enough salt levels that it won't harm the fish or plants. Start with 1/4 tsp per gallon and add more daily until the hydra vanish then just do regular water changes which will slowly remove the salt.
 

JeffInKentucky

New Member
Messages
18
Location
Kentucky
One more thought: I had green hydra in my main tank, at least 20 that I could easily see (it's a jungle), and constantly have borellii fry of some age in there. At the time I used Panacur the youngest fry were two weeks post free-swim. Did not seem to impact the little guys. I did drop in an extra airstone and fretted about ammonia spikes from dying hydra but it worked out well. Suspect all the plants helped absorb fluctuations.

Also, even with hydra certainly present before treating, I still had many survivors from earlier spawns. Definitely not the entire spawn, but many and survival rate might have been down to other factors beyond hydra predation. So, if I were in your shoes, I might hold off until any fry are a week or so past free swim to treat.

Hope this helps!
It does help. Thank you very much!
 

Ben Rhau

Apisto Club
Messages
566
Location
San Francisco
Since it would take me a couple days to get Panacur, I’ve always treated by attaching copper wire to a 6V battery and putting the electrodes on opposite sides of the tank for a couple hours. Sometimes I need to do it more than once, but it works and has never had ill effects on my fry or inverts.
 

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