What do you all recommend

[Dluxeshrimps]

I have recently seen planaria flatworms in my RCS tank, should I be worried? What can I do to help my tank? I currently have shrimplets and grown RCS in there with 7 moss balls and a bunch of hornworts plant.

[Jaykidding]

Don't feed as much now, planaria come from over feeding. So just try to limit and do less feeding from now on they don't harm adults and may harm shrimplets

[Pokeshrimp]

Also use a feeding tray. Easier to remove uneaten food and food doesn't get into the soil.

[Soothing Shrimp]

I respect Jay, however my opinion differs because I have seen planaria take down one of my adult prized shrimp years ago.

 

Panacur will rid you of them.  Remove any snails you want to keep.  Someone is able to chime in on dosing, I'm sure.

[Dluxeshrimps]

well my tank has shrimplets and I use a feeding tray for the adult shrimp that I remove with in an hour and for the shrimplet I dose the tank with Glas Garten Bacter AE Micro Powder on a daily as mentions on the directions. I have about 18 or so shrimplets that I can guesstimate.

but I did notice these white worms swimming around the gravel and filter and I walked into a dead RCS yesterday which hasn't happen since I got my set up

[SoBlue98]

If you are sure it is planaria, I've read about a product called no planaria that I found one eBay for around 20 bucks. It had a lot of good reviews when used properly

[Dluxeshrimps]

im very accident prone. ill have a look at it see if it would not harm the shrimp

[SoBlue98]

All of the reviews said that it didn't if used properly, but I have no personal experience.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Be careful with No Planaria.  Some people say it worked okay for them, others say it killed their shrimp.

[Clansman]

You need to defo make sure it's planarian you have they tend to slide rather than swim, I don't think there caused by over feeding ok it might let them populate a bit more but I use feeding dish and am very sparse with feeding I also remove uneaten food yet I get planaria , got to a point I was sucking them out with an extended meat baster and trapping , I used fenbendazole IE it's proper name bought at pets at home as a cat wormer panacur is a brand name but same , we all have to decide if we treat chemically but I used in 4 tanks over a few weeks and never lost a shrimp including lots of tb babies .

If it gets to that point this is my method

Planaria and hydra treatment using Fenbendazole

This is my preferred method I combined info from web and other shrimp keepers but I wanted to adopt an easy reliable and stable treatment, I believe fenbendazole because it's an approved animal wormer used regularaly on very expensive stock will be manufactured tested and controlled to a high stable standard , giving confidence in its use.

Fenbendazole normally comes in 3 X sachets , there's many brands . 1 sachet contains 222mg

(1). I used a small pill crusher to make it finer for water suspension , you could do the same with a spoon maybe even before you open the sachet, this may not be required if it's one of the finer granules.

2). Fill 200 ml of RO water or tank water into jug and empty in 1 full sachet and stir lightly

(3). Pour jug into a small plastic bottle food grade or coffee jar make sure all chemical goes in

(4). Shake bottle like mad to make it into a suspension

(5). Pour bottle back into jug

(6). I used a 60 ml Syringe with a bit of 6 "" airline to suck up the dose and direct it into tank

(7). It looks like a white gas when added so I stirred with a plastic ruler for even distribution .

(8). Repeat dose 24 hours later same strength

(9). Carry out a 10% water change 24 hours later ( I don't believe this is vital)

(10) I did initially monitor water parameters before , during and after treatment , there was no change to tds, ph and ammonia.

Dosage used on the following tank water capacity

Note these capacities are after deduction for soil, wood rocks etc

60 litre = 32 ml

45 litre = 24 ml

30 litre = 16 ml

From these it's easy to work out most tanks

To save on cost long term I purchased mini scales £5 , and used 50% of fedbendazole in each sachet, and only mixed in 100 ml of ro water, dosage therefore stayed the same.

I think it's best if we can get it into a suspension and equally spread , on the hydra I squirted onto the plant leaves then stirred they all died by next morning , planaria mostly died but second dose seen them all gone , I never lost a single shrimp including babies and berried females, I don't believe it will kill snails but maybe for those that have lots of MTS that could rot that's a good thing , like most shrimp treatment there's always a worry but as fendbendazol is widely used as a wormer it most likely is manufactured to very strict levels so maybe very reliable . I can't speak for no planaria but it certainly won't be subjected to same trials .

[Jaykidding]

Wow really soothing??? How big was that planaria, my planaria don't get bigger than a centimeter

[jimko]

Sorry!

My experience with planaria is that they are disgusting worst than roaches. They don't harm the shrimp usually go after the weak, dying, or dead.

If you want them to be completely gone. Bleach out and restart is probably the fool proof way to insure they are all gone. Place all plants hard scape in a bucket with fenbendozole soak for 1-2 day. Catch shrimp place in bucket with fenbendozole and sponge filter crank up the bubbles. Empty water in tank to substrate line and bleach out the substrate. Those bugger reproduce a lot in the substrate. Clean substrate and dechlorinate a couple times before replacing everything.

I've done the fenbendozole and no planaria treatment. Always have die off after because the dead planaria, snails, and microbes that die cause the system to crash. A couple of times I've done the treatment had the die off and the planaria are still there in a couple of months.

If you want to control them. There a traps/pens that specifically target the planaria life style and leave the shrimp alone. Gush makes one. There's also a bunch of diy stuff you can look into. Don't overfeed. In stank with a healthy colony these buggers will out compete your shrimp for food so much easier to treat/control if you colony is small.

Once they are gone it's a good idea to have some fenbendozole on hand. I like to dip new plants and mosses in fenbendozole before placing in tank. I hate these extraordinary creatures that are invincible.

[Dluxeshrimps]

hmm some good info, I did a clean of my gravel and I pulled up a whole lot of these worms. looks like a bucket full of white worms. very alien like. made me second guess my feeding habits

[Vpier]

Are you sure they are planaria? This link is from soothing  http://www.harpercollege.edu/ls-hs/bio/dept/guide/gallery/aquatic_worms/thumb.html

[gillznglass]

Planaria have thick body's and move some what slow, where as detritus worms are very thin and can at times be seen swimming with a rapid jerking movements in the water column.