modster

How often do you dose? I have been reading bunch of articles about planaria and hydra. Those articles make it sounds like every planted tank has those pests. I guess what i really want know is how to prevent the problem.

MatPat

A single dose is all it takes.

Shurik

Very helpful information! Thank you, MatPat!

I guess this is the dewormer we can use and that should do:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...m?pcatid=13555

I only wonder how to approximately measure 0.1gm. There is that RedSea Ammonia test with a tiny little plastic spoon for sodium nitroprusside reagent, does anybody knows what that spoon size is?

I had a goldfish in my shrimp tank before and they provided all the factors contributing to planaria population bloom:

Fish's been overfed,
I had Fluval internal filter,
I had ammonia spikes

and to my understanding this is what should be avoided to prevent such a situation. I am at this point when I should just nuke them all. It is too late for prophylactic method for me.

MatPat

You are very welcome. Pests can be hard to eradicate in shrimp tanks since most meds will also effect the shrimp.

That is the one I used. I found it locally (the 4 gm package) for about $13 and saved on shipping The one gram packet should be plenty for about 100 gallons of water. If you feel like experimenting, you can try splitting one of the 0.1gm doses in half and see how it works. I had success adding 0.2 grams to a 29g tank of Crystal Red Shrimp so a smaller dose may work.

Fenbendazole is very insoluble in water. You should be able to divide a 1 gram dose into ten equal parts and dose one of those parts for each 10g of water in your tank. In the thread I linked to earlier in this post someone followed that same advice and had success. I'm not sure if you can overdose the fenbendazole given it's insolubility but I'm not up for taking a chance to see what the lethal dose is

I was at the same point and decided to medicate after months of trying to manually remove the planaria. I now feed the shrimp smaller amounts more frequently and I have yet to have a another occurrence of hydra or planaria in my tanks. With a lack of natural predators in shrimp only tanks, plenty of unwanted pests can thrive if we overfeed or slack on the tank maintenance.

Overfeeding the shrimp, too many snails, and air driven sponge filters on the tank seemed to contribute to my problem. One 0.1 gram dose of fenbendazole and they were all gone. If you have any Hydra in there, give the fenbendazole 48 hours to kill them. They seem to die a bit slower than the planaria.

MatPat

Shurik,

Have you dosed the fenbendazole to your tank yet?

modster

Is there any difference between Panacur C and safe-guard? I couldn't find any planaria in my tank, but i saw a tiny critter that looks like a hydra. I am debating if i should give my tank a dose.

MatPat

From what I can find by doing a quick Google search, Panacur C seems to be "granules" while Panacur seems to be sold in a variety of forms, paste, suspension, and powder. Both types of "Panacur" and "Safe Gard" all contain fenbendazole but I'm not sure of the concentration. Concentration of fenbendazole could be the difference between the names Panacur C and Panacur.

MatPat

You may want to positively ID your pest before dosing with any medications. Shrimp are fairly sensitive to most medications but fenbendazole doesn't seem to be too bad for them at low doses.

milalic

Very good comments...it is refreshing to see other people experiences and what worked for them.
I feel this thread will greatly help newbies and encourage others to keep shrimp tanks.

Keep those experiences coming

MatPat

I apologize for missing the second part of your question. I'm not really sure how to prevent planaria or hydra in a planted tank. Over feeding and a lack of natural predators is probably the cause.

I really don't think either planaria or hydra are a problem unless they are present in a breeding set up. It seems the fry (both fish and shrimp) are the most susceptible to these pests and they don't seem to bother adult fish or shrimp. I have heard of a few fish that will eat them but they were not suitable for shrimp breeding tanks so I did not commit them to memory.