ID this please

Can some one tell me what this is? I have it in my tank it is growing on the glass and on my plants as well.
It s the thing with the long tentacle like threads on it.







is this a problem or what?

 

That's Hydra. It is a problem with fry and is usually present when overfeeding or it can be introduced on plants etc.

 

Hydra will kill and eat fish fry. You cannot wipe them off as each little piece that breaks off becomes a new hydra.. some people say empty the tank, clean it with a copper sulphate solution and really really wash it well. The plants can be thrown away or dipped in copper sulphate. But the problem is that it is really difficult to clean after you have added the copper sulphate - so this is NOT RECOMMENDED..

I think there are some fish that eat them (Cant remember which ones)

They cannot tolerate copper, but neither can your fish..

So - the bad news is there is no easy way to get rid of them...

We have had a few infestations and ended up emptying the tank completely, letting it dry in the sun and starting from scratch..

 

After doing some reading up, I've found that some livebeaers eat hydra - some say any livebearer will take up the task. Try introducing some mollies to the tank and see what happens.

 

Oh My word.... that sounds like a nasty thing to have in your tank there Gareth.

Can I ask Vee and Gaf how this get's into the tank?

 

Your welcome to come and get about 20 sailfin mollies from me. . Ive got allot

 

Thanks guys I really appreciate you help and thanks Franna for the offer but I have about 10 Mollies that I can add today hope it works otherwise I will have to redo the hole tank.
I think I will add the mollies today and if within a week there is no improvement then I will redo the tank completely.

 

It usually comes in on plants or with live foods but I have my own, as yet unproven (I think), theory on this. Since we never added new plants when we had a hydra outbreak we came to the conclusion that it most likely came in with the brineshrimp eggs which we hatch daily and feed to those tanks as the hydra only appeared in those tanks which we fed bbs to and to no other tanks. In our case it was definitely not through plants and we were feeding no other live food other than the bbs. Strange.....a real hassle to get rid of completely though. Raising the temp to around 40 degrees for a about 10 minutes will kill it but you need to remove all the fish before doing this as the fish will not withstand such high temps. After 10 minutes you can vacuum the substrate, if any, and do a 50% water change before putting the fish back. That kills the hydra quickly.

 

How would you heat a tank to 40deg Vee, as far as I know the heater only go up to about 34 max? if I can do this it ould really help out a alot.

 

That's a good point Gareth which is why we went with the start from scratch route ourselves but I would assume that you could remove the fish, remove half of the water and S-L-O-W-L-Y add boiling water from a kettle to the tank. I say slowly so that you have very very very little chance of cracking the tank with a sudden temp change. I'm actually thinking of trying the temp route myself on one of the tanks which I just saw has one or two Hydra in it again......I'll report back on how successful the method is.

 

Thanks Vee
I Have added 10 Mollies now to the tank over the course of the day dp I hope they will sort it out for me but I will let you know

 

wow this stuff is mean ! you would thik one of the companies in the industry would have developed a treatment? or have they?

 

Not as far as any of the LFS's in Potch know...lol but then again they don't know much.

 

after some googling it appears the best method is to use fish to eat them. mollies , gouramis and algae eaters seem to work. im guessing corydoras will also do the job? has anyone had hydra in a cory tank?

 

I have 3 Corrys in this tank and they don't seem to eat it at all? had the corries in there from the stsrt but now they just keep the bottom clean, I think I will get a bristle nose pleco and add him in and see what happens

 

ive read that three spot / blue gourami are great at eliminating hydra.

 

ok do who would be willing to borrow me a few 3 spot gourami's?......lol

 

hmmm my bristlenose Marvin isnt into the whole eating algae thing gareth, he prefers to poach the apple snails lettuce leaves and i feed him cucumber every now and then as a treat. he also eats the food on the bottom of the tank much like the corries do. he's very cool though, i love his bristles lol they make him look so cute!

 

Has anyone thjought of using OZONE as a form of getting rid of this? OZONE works extremely well in getting rid of algae. I have a HAILEA ozone generator and when allowed to bubble in a 100+l tank, quite green, water and glass, with algae it is absolutely clean, crystal clear, within about 12hrs.
I must say it looks rather terrible!!

 

to use or not to use Ozone

http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=1643

This link will help