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> Richard is referring to the fact that my fry tanks are always in > "bloom" with these wonderful little beasties. I feed BBS very heavily and > the old boot is giving me the razz. For others of you who are concerned with > them (I'm not) there is a pretty little livebearer called Poecilia perugiae > that eats them by the ton. They actually make a nice addition to your killie > tanks. Jim is also the species coordinator for the American Livebearer Association and has a nice collection of unusual grey fish to compliment his collection of unusual brown dirt spawing killes and his unusual collection of cryptocorynes of all diferent colors, and I must say he is right about the combinaton. I have a lovely 1.5 gal hex tank in the kitchen with a couple of Cryptocoryne blassi and a colony of about 12 Endlers Poeciliad. Oleg will now immediately jump in and tell me thats too many fish for a tank that size, all that CO2... ....maybe thats why I can now grow crypts, or maybe it's the livebearers eating algae off the leaves, acitng like little vacuum cleaner disturbing the leaves to knock the "lint" off. Eat algae or die, swine. I rarely feed them, only when I want the populaiton to grow. Forget yeast to make co2, overcrowd your tank algae eating fish and killies.
William Wasserman (11156-at-worldnet.att.net) writes: > I breed killifish and have not been able to rid my setup of hydra. I > seem to have gotten them in a batch of java moss. They seemed harmless > enough untill I saw them snagging adult size brine shrimp. Killi > babies are alot smaller then adult brine shrimp. The hydra (for those > who don't know) look and act like fresh water sea anemone. > Clout and other over the counter cure alls haven't worked.Someone > in the AKA told me to try formaldehyde at two drops per gallon. Sounds > a bit scarry to me and was wondering if anyone here knows something > about these little killers. > Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks... ....from my notes HYDRA These relatives of the jellyfish grow to 3/4 inches in length and are difficult to eradicate. They cling to plants and the sides of containers They may be pink, green, gray or transparent depending upon the food source. Following are seven methods of eradication. Soak plants and rocks for 5 minutes in a solution consisting of 1 heaping tsp. ALUM/quart of water. Introduce a hungry three-spot or pearl gourami. Add 5 grains of AMMONIUM NITRATE/gallon aquarium water. Remove nothing. Soak plants in a solution consisting of one part lime water to six parts water. Add 3 ppm KMNO4 and maintain for 2 to 3 days. Remove fish, heat tank to 106 F, let stand for 10 minutes, siphon off the bottom 1/2 of the water and replace with fresh water at 72 F. The plants will survive. Add several nickel sized mystery snails to the tank. They will eat the hydra. Add 2 ml of 3% HYDROGEN PEROXIDE to the water. The free oxygen kills the hydra, but will not harm the fish. Treat with COPPER. Remove copper with 1 mg/L tannic acid which causes formation of a precipitate that can be removed with a carbon filter(?). You can also kill them using an electric current flowing diagonally through the tank. From personal experience, the heat treatment works. I did try the ammonium nitrate treatment in another tank, but at about 60 ppm. Note that 5 grains/gallon is about 85 ppm. I believe that this also worked. My recollection is a bit foggy. -- Dave Whittaker ac554-at-FreeNet.Carleton.CA Gloucester, Ontario dwhitt-at-magmacom.com Canada
> Richard is referring to the fact that my fry tanks are always in > "bloom" with these wonderful little beasties. I feed BBS very heavily and > the old boot is giving me the razz. For others of you who are concerned with > them (I'm not) there is a pretty little livebearer called Poecilia perugiae > that eats them by the ton. They actually make a nice addition to your killie > tanks. Jim is also the species coordinator for the American Livebearer Association and has a nice collection of unusual grey fish to compliment his collection of unusual brown dirt spawing killes and his unusual collection of cryptocorynes of all diferent colors, and I must say he is right about the combinaton. I have a lovely 1.5 gal hex tank in the kitchen with a couple of Cryptocoryne blassi and a colony of about 12 Endlers Poeciliad. Oleg will now immediately jump in and tell me thats too many fish for a tank that size, all that CO2... ....maybe thats why I can now grow crypts, or maybe it's the livebearers eating algae off the leaves, acitng like little vacuum cleaner disturbing the leaves to knock the "lint" off. Eat algae or die, swine. I rarely feed them, only when I want the populaiton to grow. Forget yeast to make co2, overcrowd your tank algae eating fish and killies.
Nestor10 <nestor10-at-mindspring.chkr.com> wrote in article <62b7km$cl-at-camel18.mindspring.com>... >... > I have a hydra infestion - my first ever. Hell, I've not even seen them > since school. >... can anyone increase the number of options available. > Here's one I just read in _All About Tropical Fish, 4th ed._, McInerny & Gerard: "Limnaea stagnalis (common pond snail)..." which is distinct from Physa fontinalis, the American pond snail, "...will devour Hydra with relish." The authors then devote a paragraph to the snail's hydra-munching abilities. L. stagnalis is native to England, I think. The authors also suggest that the snails "should be removed after clearing the Hydra..." - yeah, right. Pass the relish!
"Nestor10" (nestor10-at-mindspring.chkr.com) writes: > I have a hydra infestion - my first ever. Hell, I've not even seen them > since school. To eradicate hydra there are many methods. I have tried two. One method is to add 5 grains/gallon (78 ppm) of ammonium nitrate. Another is to heat the tank to 106 F for ten minutes removing the fish of course. Both methods are safe for both plants and fish. -- Dave Whittaker ac554-at-FreeNet.Carleton.ca
On Sat, 18 Oct 1997 16:51:46 -0400, "Nestor10" <nestor10-at-mindspring.chkr.com> wrote: >I purchased some new plants about 10 - 14 days ago. Most of them went into >the Julie tank, and have created a problem. > >I have a hydra infestion - my first ever. Hell, I've not even seen them >since school. > >The only technique I can find listed is running copper wiring into the tank >and attaching it to a six-volt battery for a few hours, which probably >causes copper to form a solution in the tank (technique Dr. Andrews uses). > >Now I don't expect the battery to do much harm to the fish (electro-shock >therapy?), and I don't expect to go out and get a couple if hydra eating >fish, but can anyone increase the number of options available. > >I would like to rid the tank of them quickly, without making the Julies too >skittish, as they are just coming "of age and are beginning to pair off. Aquarisol works well against hydra and is fairly easy on the fish and plants. It is a copper based medicine, but I've used it without ill effects in tanks with rainbow fry and planted aquaria. You may want to try a half dose at first, to insure your julies aren't sensitive. Those hydra can really reproduce when you're feeding baby brine, can't they? I would also warn you to isolate anything you use in that tank. You can easily move hydra around with nets and such. Then they'll show up in a fry tank as soon as you start pumping in the baby brine. Good luck Cary Hostrawser My Rainbowfish Home Page http://pw2.netcom.com/~caryho/home.html Rainbowfish Study Group Web Page http://home.stlnet.com/~gwlange/rainbowfish.index.html
Poseidon:> I think a blue gourami could hold it's own in a julie tank (if it's large, if not try a gold). Gouramis are said to like hydra...I wonder if some sort of pleco would eat them Thanks for the response - you're quick tonight. I understand that Paradise Fish are another alternative, but couldn't comment on the Pleco - just never have kept any as I wouldn't know what to do with a fish that size. Might eventually get around to one of the dwarf species, though. I had decided against adding other fish to this tank for a couple of reasons - I want to keep it a specimen tank for now (eight _J. ornatus in a 29 gallon) and the pH and hardness I keep them in would be a considerable jump for any other fish without quite a bit of acclimation (8.8 and liquid rock). The Gouramis and Paradise are listed as liking a maximum pH level of 8.0, a lot closer to the low end of the Julies. Also, I was afraid that any additions at this point would disrupt the pairing off. Like you, I assume that a copper-based medication would do the trick, and was just wondering. If the batteries don't work, I guess I was looking for follow-up treatments or precautions. Like I mentioned in my JD update, it's been so long since I've had sick fish (or tanks) that I've forgotten nearly everything about treatments or side effects (not that that's an area I would particularly care to become expert at, anyway). It's really quite interesting to watch this battery and wire setup at work, though. I didn't have a six-volt battery lying around, so took a set of eight AAs, soldered them in parallel by pairs and then each pair in series to not only get the six volts but with a higher loading capability than simply stringing four in series. As soon as they're in the water, the cathode begins to trail a stream of really fine bubbles, and after a while the anode begins to get the green build-up charateristic of weathered copper. Now if I only had something that needed electroplating! At any rate, the hydra began dropping within 20 - 30 minutes. The tougher ones held out for about two hours. It's recommended to keep the electrodes in the water for three to six hours, followed by an immediate 25 - 50% water change for those interested. I'm shooting for the three hour mark and a five gallon change tonight with another five tomorrow morning so as not to upset the system any more than necessary. Which brings up another interesting point - has anyone ever heard of any other seemingly off-the-wall treatments for anything? You know, kind of like the old "Country Doctor" approach -Y- nestor10-at-mindspring.chkr.com "chkr." is for mail-bots
> As I'm quite sure you know, the bubbles from the negative terminal would be hydrogen (in pure water). Others who duplicate this should be cautioned not allow it to accumulate as it is quite flammable. Your cautionary statement is quite correct, and should have been included in my original posting. Thanks for catching the oversight - sometimes I tend to leave out safety considerations as some actions are so ingrained as to be purely habitual for me. The only reference I could find on hydra among my dozen or so books was from "Tropical Aquarium Fish - Comprehensive Edition" by Drs. Chris Andrews and Ulrich Baensch, published by Tetra-Press in 1994 (page 48 for those that have one). I recognized Dr. Andrews' name on the cover about a month ago while browsing the local Petsmart's library (see, they do have a couple of good points). I don't know that it's all that "comprehensive" unless the range of topics is what they took into consideration, but the book was part of a clearance sale and I picked it up because the photography was good ( - any excuse to add to the library). Some recommendations I would add now that I've tried: The electrodes should most probably stay in the water only long enough to accomplish the task. It's pretty easy to tell when the job's done - the hydra will first contract, then relax as they die. The tentacles at this point will not form in a spread pattern, but trail in a definite loose streamer. Finally, the hydra detaches and becomes free-floating. The 25 - 50% water change should be seriously considered (25% for short exposures, 50% for long ones), along with follow-up carbon filtration. It's too soon to tell what effects the copper will have on the plants. My Julie tank holds corkscrew val, elodea/anachris/egeria (depending on who's selling or listing it), "mondo grass" (a marsh rush that I don't have the scientific name for) and some _Eleocharis vivipara_, a fine, hairlike rush that's pretty prolific. At any rate, splitting the changes overnight as I did evidently allowed too large a concentration of copper to remain in the water for too long, as the Julies were sluggish, off-balance and off their appetites this morning. But the second change and a few hours of carbon filtration brought them back around. And I had thought that since the artemia showed no ill-effects when added to the tank, that there wouldn't be too much copper - but on hindsight, I shouldn't have prolonged cleaning the water. > I wonder if Goldenseal would be useful with aquarium bacteria infections or if it would harm the filter bacteria. Then there's echinacea and astragulus root. Hmm... But then, maybe those that have a problem with Plecos eating eggs at night could feed them some chamomile before lights out... -Y- nestor10-at-mindspring.chkr.com "chkr." is for mail-bots
The subject of hydra appears about once every 4-5 months. I found an interesting article onthe subject in the October issue of Aquarium Frontiers. The URL is: http://www.aquariumfrontiers.com/1997/oct/product/index.htm The article reports on a highly effective drug called Panacur in the US, Flubenol in Germany, that kills hydra while leaving plants AND killie fry healthy. It's a drug that you can obtain through a veterinarian. Bill Vannerson McHenry, IL USA http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/William_Vannerson (updated 9/25/97) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto-at-majordomo.pobox.com. For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help, email apisto-request-at-majordomo.pobox.com. Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List Archives"!
David Sanchez <barbax2-at-yahoo.com> wrote: <<<< P.S. fluke tabs have a very good active ingrediant(though I can not remember its name now) and is another very good option. There was another message on the list that mentioned it.>>>>> FT contains mebendazole (an analogue of flubendazole, it should kill flukes and nematodes, including their eggs, and tapeworms) and metrifonate, which acts very quickly on adult flukes, but does not kill the eggs. I use FT in a single, full dose, and then repeat a week later, hoping that if some eggs escaped the first treatment, the second punch a week later will eliminate the newly hatched larvae before they can lay new eggs. When FT works, the positive effects are normally immediate. The second dose is always at higher risk of causing signs of toxicity (faded colors, nervousness, headstanding), probably due to a very high content in metrifonate. Lots of people get very scared by that, but in reality these toxic effects are normally only temporary, and often well worth the benefits provided by the drug. I like more flubenol or praziquantel, but for many people the easy availability of FT and its good price and ease of use, represent a great option. I also agree with you that in tanks with substrate the chances of lasting success are smaller than in bare ones. Do you have any info on how long fluke eggs can stay dormant in a fish-free tank? The medication mentioned, I think, by Diane is a sulfa antibiotics mix, that in this situation would probably be useless, and even detrimental. Dionigi Maladorno dionigi.maladorno-at-roche.com This message presents personal opinions which are not necessarily those of my employer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto-at-majordomo.pobox.com. For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help, email apisto-request-at-majordomo.pobox.com. Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List Archives"!
FYI - it also knocks the hell out of hydra with no effect on even very young apistos or rainbowfish (in my experience). Use about 1/4 - 1/2 tab per 10 gallons. You will see 100% effectiveness in 24 hours. Tom ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto-at-majordomo.pobox.com. For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help, email apisto-request-at-majordomo.pobox.com. Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List Archives"!
I had hydra in a discus tank a week or so ago, I added about a dozen 2 month old 3-spot gouramis and they ate them all in about 3 days. Only fish I know of that will eat them, the trick is to find the gourami fry that are small enough to mess with your apisto fry > Sunday, I was doing water changes and to my absolute horror I discovered > Hydra, in the Pleurotaenia mother and fry tank. These things were > everywhere!! They sure weren't there before I left for Montreal on > Saturday!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto-at-majordomo.pobox.com. For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help, email apisto-request-at-majordomo.pobox.com. Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List Archives"!
lewis weil wrote: > <snip>Then you get a 9v battery > and two lengths of copper wiring. put the wires on the + - input and > outputs. Place the wire in the tank and the hydra should quickly begin > > dying. You may want to take the fish out. Especially if you do not know their tolerance to the copper treatment. > I have heard people have had > great success with this.<snip> Definitely takes the hydra out...the fresher the battery the faster the results...the bigger the battery the quicker the reaction. This method has worked for me with a couple of fish (have not had to try it with Apistos)...but the rainbows died within an hour of the start of the treatment...the gudgeons took a few days to die and after just 20 minutes of exposure...B. splendens had no problems...no amount of water change will reverse the damage. I still use the copper method, but just on empty tanks and equipment. I'm beginning to like the hydra (sure). Take precautions. Good luck, Jim -- High Prairie Farms Freshwater Aquarium Fishes San Rafael, California 415-472-7294 (phone) 415-472-7971 (fax) http://www.atchison.com/highprairiefarms.html LIVE FOODS! http://www.atchison.com/live.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@majordomo.pobox.com. For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help, email apisto-request@majordomo.pobox.com. Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List Archives"!
I have lost entire spawns to these little buggers. Never treated with
any chemicals, just learned when to move fry to another tank while other
is being scrubbed. Laborious but it works.
Tim
Maladorno, Dionigi {DRUG~Nutley} wrote:
>
>
> Fi205sh@aol.com wrote: <<<<< Hydra cure
> The only thing I've found that works, so far 100% of the time, is
> Fluke Tabs
> made by Aquarium Products.(...)
>
> and "Susanne and Cory Williamson" wrote:<<<< Hydra and copper
> What is the problem with hyda?? I have some in my 90g community tank-
> should
> I be worried?>>>>>>
>
> It is quite clear that most people and reference books feel
> that hydra in tanks with adult fish is not a problem at all.
>
> Now, concerning breeding tanks with fry, I am curious to
> understand the extent of the problem. I do see hydra come
> and go in my apisto breeding tanks, but I never noticed any
> substantial impact on the number of fry, and I never read of
> any actual report either. It may be that I
> just did not notice it, but I also wonder if indeed it is really
> such a big deal. If BBS stimulates the multiplication of hydra,
> wouldn't BBS also be the most easy and common food taken
> by these freshwater anemones?
>
> I would be very interested in knowing of any first-hand reports of
> people that actually lost a substantial portion of their own tank
> spawns due to hydra. Anybody on this list?
>
> I am asking this because in my opinion medications should be
> used only to solve problems bigger than those created by the
> medications themselves. To treat for a remote or theoretical
> chance may not be worth it.
>
> Dionigi Maladorno
> dionigi.maladorno@roche.com
> This message presents personal opinions which are not necessarily
> those
> of my employer.
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Dionigi,
After a bad experience in one of my (25 imperial gallon) tanks with 4 day old Guinacara sp. Red Cheek fry.
The Hydra had killed about 40 fry. From that day onwards I alternate the
feeding of all my fry with b.s. and micro worm culture and feed little and
often. This has worked and luckily that episode hasn't been repeated.
Helen
In a message dated 12/18/98 3:59:38 PM Eastern Standard Time, Aquatic-Plants- Owner@actwin.com writes: << I would be very interested in knowing of any first-hand reports of people that actually lost a substantial portion of their own tank spawns due to hydra. Anybody on this list? >> I have, I had an introduction of hydra in a planted tank that I was using to raise Rainbowfish fry. These fry are extremely small and can only take infusoria for the first week or so. Prior to having hydra in this tank, which by the way arrived through an introduction of some plants bought at an auction, I was raising 70-80% of the fry to a reasonable size, after I found that the hydra were in the tank I was lucky if 4 to 5% of the fry could be raised. The hydra would gorge themsleves on the fry and also on any BBS fed to the tank, you could clearly see that they had eaten by the swollen area in their centers. So yes in my opinion hydra will eat fry that are small enough. Regards, John van Rompu Toronto
> I am wondering out load - has someone actually observed a hydra capture and > eat a fry? Or it this another one of those hobby legends that is passed on > and on? Not personally, but about 40 years ago there was a photo in one of the fish magazines of a Hydra with its tentacles wrapped around a fry. Please don't expect me to remember the name of the magazine after 40 years, but I very clearly remember the photo. It was one of those photos that you'll never forget, ever.
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