TheRedRoy12 Posted July 15, 2016 Report Share Posted July 15, 2016 I have been holding shrimp for about 5 months now, I started with two red cherry three black crystal three red crystal and two blue bolts. About a month ago the population has started booming from my blue bolts and my red and black crystals. The breeding from those two species have been phenomenal I have never seen a dead one and the numbers of them only keep growing, however something else seems to be growing in population. I have these strange larvae things on the bottom of my tank that started appearing a little bit before my baby shrimp did, I see them fighting with eachother all the time but they seem to be leaving my shrimp alone plus they stopped growing a while ago and have been surpassed in size by my first wave of baby shrimp awhile ago. At first I didn't mind them but as I'm seeing more of them I can't help but be a little nervous as this tank is my favorite of the three, not to mention aside from the larvae type creatures some very small worm looking creatures are starting to appear. It has basic filtration and it's a 5 gallon marineland. My question is, should I be worried. Please and thank you. capturedvideo.MOV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. F Posted July 15, 2016 Report Share Posted July 15, 2016 Scuds. Hyalella azteca. They breed quick and compete with shrimp for food, but if you see shrimp growth I wouldn't worry. They're just kinda ugly. You can feed them to your fish if you have any large enough. As for the worms, I can't see them in the video so I'm not sure what you have. If they're planaria or hydra, you have a problem, otherwise they're probably okay... not much experience with anything but planaria and blackworms/detritus worms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRedRoy12 Posted July 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2016 9 minutes ago, Mr. F said: Scuds. Hyalella azteca. They breed quick and compete with shrimp for food, but if you see shrimp growth I wouldn't worry. They're just kinda ugly. You can feed them to your fish if you have any large enough. As for the worms, I can't see them in the video so I'm not sure what you have. If they're planaria or hydra, you have a problem, otherwise they're probably okay... not much experience with anything but planaria and blackworms/detritus worms. Thank you for the reply! I'm glad to hear the Scuds aren't a problem, and i compared photos and I could just be paranoid but they do resemble Planarian with an arrow shaped head. If it Planarian, how serious of a problem is it?? I'll remind you I just caught these guys at the bottom so if it is a dangerous species at least I caught them early. capturedvideo.MOV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. F Posted July 15, 2016 Report Share Posted July 15, 2016 It's very hard to see their shape, but their movement is very planarian- not to worry. You can just remove the large ones you see manually for now. They're quite easy to syphon out with air line tubing (even easier if you have a small tube that fits the tubing), and not so easy to get with forceps. They feed on extra food and, when they are large enough, can take down young shrimplets. Clean your substrate as you do little water changes to get rid of extra food and detritus. If you do this- with care- multiple times over the next few weeks, they should disappear. This is how I have always dealt with them and they always have gone away. Now I am sure not to overfeed the tanks that don't need it and they stay away. I also have a healthy population of blackworms that eat the extra food and detritus. They seem to out-compete the planaria (and aerate my substrate as well as being an occasional treat for my platinum barbs and ruby barbs in my community tank) and can stick around a little longer without food, as I have not seen any flatworms for some time now (knock on wood). ..then there are the chemicals... Disclaimer: Don't use chemicals unless you're really confident and careful or ready to lose your shrimp. Really. Shrimp are super sensitive, especially TBs. To get rid of them with a chemical, you can use Fenbendazole (usually sold as dog dewormer) or NO-Planaria (hard to find). The best thing to do is be conservative with the chemicals and be sure not to do anything drastic as well as QTing the shrimp when treating the tank. Often times we freak out at pests or small changes and our shrimp succumb to "over-care" syndrome. There are multiple threads on dealing with the use of these chemicals on here and many more if you do a Google search. Shrimple minded 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.