Hydra infestation in shrimp tank
So I found Weird things growing on plants…
Two days ago at night, I was looking at the red cherry shrimp tank just to see how all the shrimps are doing. There is one mama shrimp that’s been carrying eggs since I got her (about two weeks ago), so I was curious to see how she was doing.
I’ve noticed she likes to hide in the shadow unless she is hungry, so I went to the side of the tank looking through the big water wisteria bush I had going.
Then, I noticed something weird. It was so weird. I freaked out a bit, not knowing what a hell it was. It kinda looked like funky type of moss, or maybe a fungus. It looked like a dead tree, umbrella bones, or broom. And it was everywhere!! I didn’t notice it all all until I saw one. Suddenly I saw it on the tree, on the glass, on the rock, and wisteria was totally covered with it.
Still freaked out, I went to search it on google trying to identify what it is, with no luck. I couldn’t think of a right keyword to find what this thing was. Lol “weird moss” “funky thing on glass” “aquarium fungus” “string”
So I gave up, went to bed, and next morning went straight to the tank to observe again. I still couldn’t figure out what it was, but seems like there were more of it. Freaky!!
Hydra? What?
I went back searching, this time tried keyword like “bugs” “creatures” while hoping they aren’t actually those things… but finally!!! This thing is called hydra!! What? Similar to Jelly fish? Eats baby shrimps…!? WTF! Gross!!!
I knew I was in trouble (or the shrimps…) so after a few minutes of hesitation (of touching these things) I decided to take all of the water wisteria out of the tank… damnit I really like how they looked in my tank… and it was covering the whole background… oh well. I took them out, which was probably the biggest habitat of hydra in this tank. but there are more in the tank… I actually saw them floating in the water, journeying through my tank to find a new spot to be on… Nooooo!!
Figuring out how to get rid of it 🙁
So I started searching how to get rid of it, some people recommended to just crush them, so I crushed a few. Yes it was gross. And it is not gonna get rid of them all… Add salt? It will kill shrimps… empty the tank and start over? I only have one tank and i literally just started this tank… and finally came across “use fenbendazole”
I guess it’s a dog dewormer… ok. Ordered on amazon. Multiple sites stated to use 0.1g per 10gallon of water. So I think I will try that…
It will come tonight, so I’ll see how it goes… will update. I really hope all the shrimps and future shrimplets will be ok…
To be continued…
-as I’m writing this, I looked at the tank again and of course, there is snail in my tank. I was trying my best to not get snails in my tank, but I guess I failed. It probably came with the water wisteria I bought from the local store. Now I know for sure, I will not buy any plants from local fish store ever again unless I figure out how to clean it up perfectly… and dewormer will kill snails. Now I have to decide if and how to rescue this tiny snail I got. Sigh…
