[Gaia]

Ugh I got some hitchhikers from a plant about a month ago. Stupid me thought they were some sort of live food left over from the persons fry tank when I saw them. I didn't think much of it because I had neons in the tank that happily gobbled them up. I moved my neons to the other tank so my shrimp could hopefully breed. Unfortunately I've neglected my tanks for almost a week due to a very sick dog. I had some time yesterday to do some maintenance and noticed my shrimp tank is full of planaria. I know there is stuff that's safe for shrimp to kill the planaria but what will it do to the water with dead worms in it? I seriously want to dump everything and bleach the crap out of the tank! Soooo disgusting! I've got 2 cherry red shrimp in a planted 5.5 gallon. Should I just temporarily house the shrimp in a container and turf everything?

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[Dou]

This really sucks =/... If your neons love to eat them I would say bring back the wrecking crew =D. Otherwise what you suggested (emptying it all, bleaching) might be the best option to get rid of them once and for all.

 

[MDT]

There are also products like zero planaria on the market that remove planaria without harming shrimps. Read the instructions carefully, remove any chemical filtration media you may have and any snails you want to keep. Good luck

 

[Gaia]

I'm scared of what will happen to the water with all the dead worms. I was looking at my sponge filter and it seems that's their house when they aren't swimming around the tank or on the glass. The neons did a great job but apparently didn't fix the problem. Would it be possible to house the shrimp temporarily while I restart that tank? I was thinking about housing the shrimp. Treating the tank and rinsing the substrate like crazy. Would this work? Ugh I'm cringing just thinking about stinking my hand in the water

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[Dou]

If you have some sort of breeder box to place the shrimp in for your other tank (and your other tank has some hardness) I would move them there first, add in a bunch of java moss (so they feel safe) - and then start fresh/anew on your smaller tank. RCS are pretty hardy as long as you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and adequate gH in the water. Since you only have 2 red cherries, it's not that huge of a deal to me but it might be since it's all you have.

If you're ever out in Richmond I can give you a bunch of them for free =). Just let me know.

 

[Gaia]

Awww thank you! I will try and see if I can make some sort of breeding box out of a container here since I'm stuck with the poor dog. I don't want any of that gross water in the other tank so how could I acclimate them slowly? I know it seems silly to be worried about a couple of shrimp but we are talking about a girl that raced around like a maniac trying to save 2 zebra danio fry that were found by fluke because I could handle them being scared for their lives. 😶

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[Jeffski]

If you're looking for another natural "remedy", you could experiment and get some assassin snails to see if they take a liking to your planaria. Assassin snails are definitely shrimp safe. This is from personal experience, when I dropped a couple of assassins into my 5.5 gallon, the planaria population started going down to where they have almost completely disappeared. Unfortunately I can't say that they are all gone, but it's to a point where I'm no longer freaked out about it when I see the a planaria on the glass (instead of a whole bunch before the snails).

 

[TomC]

You can bait and remove most of the planaria, then use something to kill the rest. If they take shelter in the filter, clean it a few times.

 

[Gaia]

You guys are awesome! I'm going to try all these tomorrow since I have some respite from the dog lol. I was going to order more sponge filters online anyways so hopefully I can start seeding it sooner than later and burn the old one lol. Man those things are gross! Give me the heebies.

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[Reckon]

I've had those before. Got the no planaria meds from Canadian aquatics and it got rid of those worms within a week. Yes, do a few water changes afterwards.

 

[Dou]

Awww thank you! I will try and see if I can make some sort of breeding box out of a container here since I'm stuck with the poor dog. I don't want any of that gross water in the other tank so how could I acclimate them slowly? I know it seems silly to be worried about a couple of shrimp but we are talking about a girl that raced around like a maniac trying to save 2 zebra danio fry that were found by fluke because I could handle them being scared for their lives. ��

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Hmm... do you have any airline tubing? If you want to do it the best way, most people online suggest doing "drip acclimization" - you slowly drip water from your other tank into the water that your RCS are in over a period of 1-2 hours (or more...). Alternatively, you can take some water from the other tank and add it to the RCS water every 10 minutes until they're basically in 100% of your other tanks water too.