hydra and hillstreams

[henry]

Has anyone used clout or fluke tabs with hillstream loaches for a hydra infestation? What concentration/dose would be safe? Is there a better solution? I got about a dozen in a species specific 40 gal high o2 tank.

Hydra appear to being doing very well on smaller white worms i have been feeding to the hillstreams.

I realize it will be hard on my biofilters but I can deal with that part.

Thanks
Richard

[Jim Powers]

I really don't know anything about the product you mentioned, however, you have to remember that hillstreams are sensitive to most chemical treatments.
Hopefully, someone else will come along who is more familiar with this product and give you a better answer.

[shari2]

Hi Henry,
I really know nothing about hydra or if they are dangerous to fish/aquaria or not, but I did find this on a quick look if you're after getting rid of them:

How to eliminate hydra

The aquarium can be purified by raising the temperature to 100 degrees F for twenty to thirty minutes (no fish present) or by introducing Blue or Leeri Gourami fish which will eat the hydra when forced to do so by sheer hunger. Therefore, stop feeding them for a while. Some English water snails will also eat hydra, but they have the bad habit of eating plants as well.

Another way of eliminating hydra is to black out the tank entirely, leaving only a 2 in x 2 in gap on the side facing the light. Within a few hours all the hydra in the dark tank will have gathered on the 2 in x 2 in opening and can be easily wiped off with a sponge.

For the pond, one quarter of a grain of potassium permanganate can be added for each gallon of water. The dosage can be doubled if there is no fry. This should be left for two or three days and the water then gradually changed until half to two thirds of the original has been replaced. The fish need not be removed. Another alternative remedy for the hydra infected pond is ammonium sulphate added to the water at the rate of one teaspoonful to every ten gallons. This will destroy the enemies but not the fish.

scroll down to the blue and yellow highlights

and a bit on the subject:
http://www.waterwereld.nu/hydraeng.html

One more on the risk they may pose:

Size: 0,3 - 1,5 cm, 0.1 - 1/2 inches
Hydra are beautiful, but a wee bit annoying creatures. They spend their life attached to surfaces (plants, glass, filter, decoration), they can move a bit, but usually don't have the need to do that. If disturbed, they will retract their tentacles and body to small buds. They catch small creatures (copepods, Daphnia etc.) with their tentacles which can sting, making it easier for them to haul the pray in to their mouth opening. They pose no threat to adult fish, shrimp or snails (might cause some irritation if they touch the Hydra), but newborn fish and shrimp fry are in danger.
The species in the picture is Hydra viridissima and the green color comes from algae living inside the hydra.

from here:
http://fishaliciousfish.blogspot.com/20 ... -aqua.html

[henry]

Yes the hydra do sting the little guys, you can see them pull back when they touch one.

I will try the elevated temp to 100 deg f (for 1/2 hour) combined with the diatom, as I think the hydra should detach if they are under stress and float with the current. The diatom should pick-up alot even if it does not kill them. I could kill some of the plants I guess. My Echinodorus osiris is flowering in that tank. I have a empty 25 I can put the hillstream in for a couple of days until the temp is back down.

Thanks for the input ...shari / jim

These little hillstreams are a very interesting fish to watch especially during feeding. Topping and chasing from the best feeding areas. They are such pigs too. I feed spinach, peas, kale and white worms and frozen blood worms/shrimp. I really enjoy watching that tank.

[shari2]

What plants do you have in the tank? 100F will kill most, don't know if it will do that if the exposure is only for a half hour, but ... might want to pull the plants, but if the hydra are on them I guess that's not an option.

Also, make sure the place you put the hillies has aeration and/or water movement. They can certainly suffocate in a half hour.

[henry]

I have a extra powerhead for the hillies in the 25.
I will move over a higher load sponge filter from one of my other tanks to ease the sudden bioload.

I have a potted Echinodorus osiris and some floating plants hornwort and java moss. I think the hornwort may not do good, as it does not do as good in my higher temp tanks but loves the lower temps. What plants should I take out? I can't really take out the enchinodorus as it is too big for any pail I have. It is already growing larger than the tank and I can't keep it covered as is. I could go buy something ?

[Laura]

Although I can't speak from personal experience, there are some posts on petshrimp.com about some snails eating hydra. This one talks about an applesnail with a voracious appetite (probably a cana) eating hydra. It probably isn't a great solution though as it will eat all your plants. http://www.petshrimp.com/discussions/vi ... ight=hydra

This thread discusses the giant pond snail (lymnea staginalis) eating hydra http://www.petshrimp.com/discussions/vi ... nail+hydra . We used to have some and they basically left plants alone. Unfortunately we don't have any now, or else I would offer you some.

Zapisto on our local forum recommends treating hydra with flubendazole in shrimp tanks as opposed to fluke tabs which are not shrimp safe. Given that hillies are more sensitive, it may be something to consider. Again, I haven't treated for hydra, so you may want to see if he has an opinion about flubendazole for sensitive fish.

Good luck!

[shari2]

Is the Echinodorus too large to fit into a 5 gallon bucket covered with a wet towel? What about a garbage can?

The moss and the hornwort would certainly suffer from the high temp. My moss prefers the tanks will slightly lower temps, too. However, one of the sites I cruised briefly (very briefly!) mentioned hydra liking to hang from floating plants. You might find that removing the plants will bring the hydra with them...and back into your tank.

How difficult is the hydra making life for your hillies? Could you try either the snail route or the 2x2 light method first before you hit the tank with boiling?

[henry]

It will not fit in one of my 5 gal pails. It would fit in a 10 gal garbage can. I can get one. I can treat the plants with clout in a 10 gal separate. At that point might as well treat a empty 40 gal. tank with clout? I would be a week though instead of a couple of days.


The reason I wanted to get rid of the hydra is:

They do sting the fish, and it's gotta hurt.

And, I went away for 3 weeks (about 6 weeks ago) and the wife was looking after the tanks. The day after I left she said she saw fry (wigglers from her description) in that tank. She has seen alot of my other fry. I never saw them and she didn't get a picture. Gone when I got home. Do the hillies eat their own?

[shari2]

What kind of hillies do you have?

[Jim Powers]

I have never heard of hillies eating their young.

[bullisbm]

I have never heard of hillies eating their young.

I have not either.. but they can hide like you would not believe.

[henry]

They look like this one.
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/ga ... n-scitulus

How can I attach a picture?

Is this the pic you wanted to post? you had the right idea.



To post a pic:

right click on the image
scroll down and select 'properties'
on the window that pops up highlight the complete 'Location' url and copy it.
go back to your post, click where you want the pic to be and paste in the url you copied.
highlight the complete url you just pasted (no extra spaces)
click the 'Img' tag at the top of the message body
preview to make sure your image shows.



Yes ty that is the one.

[/img]E:\dec16 07[/url]

[henry]

I put in 1/2 a fluke tab and the diatom in my 50 Gal. There was no ill effects that I noted on the hillstreams. They all still rushed down when I fed white worms and spinach as normal. After the 3rd day I could not find a Hydra.
I fed the diatom the other 1/2 of the fluke tab and left the diatom for about another week. Still no ill effects noted. I did a 1/3 water change, I guess about day 10 and 2 changes of the diatom later.

It has only been about 2 weeks, but still not a hydra and everybody is fine.

I was really really loaded with hydra.

Just wanted to share

I had noticed that during regular water changes hydra would detach and float with the current. I guess it was the chloramine? I use Prime, but there must be a couple hour period in there. Before I used chemicals, I tried to use the diatom to reduce the numbers this way, but the hydra multiplied too quick.

[Emma Turner]

I meant to comment on this thread a while back, but have been really busy lately and it must have slipped my mind. It is very interesting to hear that the hillstream loaches were ok with the fluke tab treatment, and I'm glad to hear the hydra have gone. Just in case anyone else has this problem, what brand of fluke tabs did you use?

My river tank is now a 4ft tank, but before that it was an extra tall 3ft tank. The 3ft tank ended up with a lot of hydra, despite good maintenance and conditions, and I had been getting quite worried because that was the tank that the Sewellia lineolata had first bred in. I didn't want to use any treatment because I was worried about adding chemicals to a tank containing hillies (and fry) so was at a bit of a loss because none of the species that I knew of that would feed on them were suitable for a high flow tank. Then we were lucky enough to purchase a couple of L046 zebra plecs off of a breeder, and a short while after that, practically all the hydra vanished. I then set up the new tank and transferred everything over from the old tank (fish, decor, filters, plants, water) and after a few more weeks, all the hydra were gone. I don't know for sure if it was the zebra plecs that got rid of the hydra, but it does seem rather coincidental.

Emma