Identifying And Eliminating HYDRA In Your Shrimp Tank!

#aquarium #shrimptank #nature

A Hydra is a soft-bodied polyp, one of the most ancient animal groups in evolutionary terms. A Hydra has a tubular body with a sticky foot at one end and a dozen tentacles at the other. Similar to jellyfish, these tentacles have stinging cells that allow the Hydra to immobilize their prey. They primarily eat small aquatic organisms such as cyclops and daphnia but can catch and ingest small fish and our poor baby shrimps.

Hydras are sometimes accidentally introduced into freshwater aquariums when adding plants. Since Hydra is actually a type of plant itself, it has no brain, no circulatory or respiratory system, nor even any musculature, but it still poses a real danger to small freshwater aquarium fish. These small pests usually measure just an inch or less in length and are capable of asexual reproduction, producing buds that grow into new Hydra, break off, and go out on their own. This can quickly create an outbreak in your aquarium.

Although they generally stay in one spot, Hydra is capable of uprooting and moving around. They just release their foot and float to a new spot. Hydra can also slowly inch along a substrate by attaching and releasing their tentacles and foot alternatively. Given their reproductive capabilities, their ability to relocate, and their ability to eat prey several times their size, it's obvious why Hydras are not welcome in our shrimp tanks.

Once Hydras are introduced to an aquarium, they are relatively easy to eliminate. Many types of fish will eat them, however most of these fish will also prey on our shrimp so I would recommend removing them after the hydra is gone if you choose this route.

Chemical treatments are available that will eradicate Hydra and most are shrimp and fish safe. You do have to be careful with your snails for many of these treatments but I highly recommend Fenbendazole to quickly eradicate the problem.

Hydras do not spontaneously grow; a Hydra is a stowaway that is always introduced from an external source. Once in place though, having plenty of food sources will encourage their speedy growth. Maintaining a clean tank and avoiding overfeeding will prevent Hydra that do come in from rapidly multiplying, giving you time to address the problem. Carefully inspect any new live plants before adding them to the aquarium to help avoid accidentally bringing in a Hydra.

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[danielpuente]

Im glad you made this one cuz I do have a hydra problem..I now feel more confident in dealing with it👍

[Tatersalade]

Hydre hydra in my tank, first I thought it was a prank. Then I took a closer look and OMG my body shook. First I tried to remove it by hand, then I remembered Bob Moss said I can't. But all is not lost he offered advice. If you doze with Fenbendazole they will surely demise :-)

[aperson]

Fairly certain that hydra are animals (they are related to corals and anemones)

[AllBlast]

Always till the end unless I'm busy then I gotta hit the home button!! Love what you do as always.

[ISayNukem]

I have a walter worm culture full of hydra, which means I can't feed worms to my babies. I took out as many as I could, but have lost fry to it. I probably know the answer, but is there any way I can use praziquantel in the actual worm culture, or will it kill the walter worms too?

[kntoi]

maybe too much light is the cause of hydra.. just recently had an hydra infestation on my tank and i havnt had a new equipment on my tank . what i just remembered is that i put extra hours on my lighting maybe thats the cause of the hydra

[CaptainHero]

What's all the tiny white stuff swimming around?

[MrAlvirostko]

Did you remove your shrimp before dosing?

[CrazySnailLady]

Are these treatments safe for mystery snails and plecos?

[GrumpyGillsFishing]

Hey, I maybe missed the part where you took the shrimp out of the infected tank.
I thought that planaria treatment was toxic to invertebrates? Maybe it was something else I read. I’m new to this, so school me up please. 😂

[miamikeith]

Would it kill worms? My fish are getting mauled.

[loissampson]

Never had Hydra but after seeing this I’ll be getting the Meds just in case.

[albertoc]

Does the medicine you use affect snails? I've used planaria zero, which is supposed to harm snails, a number of times for hydra at half the recomended dose and it worked without apparent harm to snails.

[zztimelapsezz]

I was loving the video but almost spit out my drink when he said hydra was a plant. Most definitely not a plant, it is an animal closely related to sea anemones, jellyfish, and coral.

[finnwiggles]

New subscriber here :) Rookie shrimp keeper. Checking out your past content for insights. My last 2 Big Beautiful female Super Reds have the 'White Ring of Death' :( :( I think I'm doing too many water changes, I thought I was doing well w/5% twice/wk because I've got a ton of Endlers. My tank is VERY densely planted including floaters, so I should be able to back off on changing the water. Also, moving some of the fish into the outdoor tub set-up. So glad I found your channel! Thank you for helping my shrimp! I'm afraid it's probably too late for my Beauty Girls. :(

[SteveHinrichs]

Just last week I thought I had a really bad algae problem. I have a couple of tanks with endlers. I noticed there were no babies for a few weeks. I came across a video talking about Hydra. I had it really bad in my tanks. Hydra would kill/eat baby endlers. I used pananacure and in less than a week I starting to see babies again. Hydra sucks and will kill fry. I feed my endlers baby brine shrimp which in turn feeds hydra. I had it in about 5 tanks. It is really bad to have in your aquariums.

[KevMfizh]

im having an outbreak of hydra RN, any more advice? its a pinto tank

[VesperVII]

I heard some chemical tratments affect snails, ever had this problem?

[squa_]

I noticed hydras in my shrimp tank. It is still early on, but soon i'll get chili rasborras.. Will this fix the issue or do i need to get that Japanese chemical to deal with it?

[richardvanderpool]

There are so many different types of dewormer how do I know the correct one to get? I don’t want to kill my shrimp or snails