Crystal Red Shrimp and Planaria

[amidala]

I am at the forefront of a mega battle with the planaria in my 1.5ft CRS office tank at the moment. Have had this tank for more than a year and recently the planaria (flat worms) have grown in such tremendous numbers that it was getting difficult to ignore them. My guess is that the first ones came along with my mini pellia (tied to wood) - and perhaps due to some overfeeding they started to multiply. :furious:

Just wondering whether planaria would attack shrimplets? I'm asking because my shrimplet survival rate is really low! From 10 my population has only managed to double in the past year, yet I've only had one or two adult casualties so far. And I've had many berried females along the way. :(

Tank specs: Water change is performed weekly, about 20%. Temp is a constant 22 degrees C (air con plus mini fan). Moss and a little mini pellia, no CO2. Running on Eheim 200 HOF.

Any comments from those who are / were similarly afflicted? :nice:

[silane]

Not too sure if they attack shrimplets or not.

But recently, I made an observation, my planaria have turned to vegetarian. Previously they stay away from plant based food, now they join the fun. Or the formula for the purchasef plant based food has changed?

[retardo]

I don't think planaria will pose any harm to your shrimp. I have yet to see them attack a shrimp that is alive. I've only seen them consume dead shrimp and food that I feed the shrimp. You may want to consider putting in a trap for the planaria.

One way to do this is use an old soda pop bottle, fill it with water and some food (rotting food works best), make a small hole on the cap of the bottle big enough to allow the planaria in, but small enough to keep shrimp out, and put it inside your tank. Then stick the bottle in the tank, either out the open or with the 'mouth' in the gravel. Upside down works best, since the planaria seem to only really know how to go up, and not really down when there's a small hole for an entrance. Overnight, you should get a TON of the planaria inside the bottle. You can now either toss the bottle and make a new one or empty the one you just made and reload with more food. Repeat as many times as necessary. You definitely will not get 100% of them on the first go, but hopefully you get a good 50-80%.

I've done it many many times, and I'm still seeing the occasional straggling planaria, which I either crush against the glass with my finger or my magfloat. BTW, you can use dead planaria as bait too. They seem to pick up on death fairly quickly. Good luck with your battle.

-r

[cheetf]

Planaria only seem to appear when shrimp are around. One of those live together set ups is it?

[Martian]

I've done it many many times, and I'm still seeing the occasional straggling planaria, which I either crush against the glass with my finger or my magfloat. BTW, you can use dead planaria as bait too. They seem to pick up on death fairly quickly. Good luck with your battle.

-r

Crush them? I wouldn't recommend this. I noticed that they are like any worms, assuming you cut them into 3 pcs, instead of dying, they multiply by 3.

The planaria trap is a better idea.

[Martian]

I'm asking because my shrimplet survival rate is really low! From 10 my population has only managed to double in the past year, yet I've only had one or two adult casualties so far. And I've had many berried females along the way. :(

Tank specs: Water change is performed weekly, about 20%. Temp is a constant 22 degrees C (air con plus mini fan). Moss and a little mini pellia, no CO2. Running on Eheim 200 HOF.

Any comments from those who are / were similarly afflicted? :nice:

Dear Amidala,

I have a similar sized tank and I have the same predicament with the survival rate. I suspect the reason lies with the small water volume as compared to bigger tanks. I noticed that the survival rate has been low in my small tank, nowadays I will only keep my small tank as breeding tank and my 4 feet tank as delivery and grow out tank. It's just too hard to get high survival rate with small tank from high grade crs.

With small tank, each water change is risky, 20% is a bit high for small tank. unless you do it gradually daily which most cannot afford the time. Water parameters fluctuate easily, especially No3. Thus, some people recommended activated carbon with good result, I have yet to try so far but will probably do so.

Can't help you on the planaria front other than using the recommended trap and feed less. Good luck!

[silane]

I noticed number of planeria increase when dead shrimp increase, or maybe the other way round. When they are very well fed, they have nice arrow head.

amidala, do you want to try this?
http://www.shrimpnow.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1383

[amidala]

Unfortunately yes, silane, my planaria (the adult ones) have really nice arrow heads. >(

Hey thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions. I haven't tried Albendazole but a LFS did recommend the medication VermeX - claimed it was CRS-friendly though he discouraged its use if there are females carrying eggs in the tank. So I haven't tried adding it to my shrimp tank because I've got new batches of shrimplets in it, as well as a couple of berried females. I've been catching the planaria as they appear (with a straw - more effective than tweezers) and popping them into a separate container of water. Dripped VermeX into it and observed that the worms did die after a day or two.

Think I'm going to try the planaria trap next, retardo. ;)

Martian, I've got a 4ft planted setup at home which I'm considering converting into a CRS-only tank. It's gonna be quite a major overhaul so I'm still thinking about how to go about it! For instance I'm wondering whether to keep the existing substrate and base fert and CO2 and keep my glosso - or clean out the entire tank, put a thin layer of dennerle black quartz and just keep moss. Thinking low maintenance - well I'll save this for another thread. :D