Planaria and Plants

[HGI]

Yea um I think I found some myself but I'm in Canada so I could get extra and ship to you no problem but it would a whole lot cheaper if you found it local since shipping international might cost a fare amount.

A lot of what I found is that these people use it for their shrimp tanks so I'm not sure how much water one bag will treat. Thought it claims to be Fish,Shrimp and Plant safe.

This was taken from a local forum, names removed.

I agree that no planaria works great! I've used it in my CRS tanks and successfully gotten rid of the planaria without losing any shrimp. I dont' know any LFS selling the product, but I believe ______ might have a pack or 2 left. You can PM him or some other members might have some.

i've only got 1 bag left and from everyone whose got it from me has worked flawlessly =)

wow, you guys are experts... i already grabbed some "no planaria" from ______. it's made of natural ingredients supposingly and it's working so far! just one day into the 3 day treatment, i can only see like a few left, over 80% is gone

I've also just stumbled across this on google but Seachem makes a product called Paraguard, and seems it will also take care of planaria. It claims that shrimps will most likely die so I'm going to try and get my hands on that No Planaria 1st.

I'll keep you updated.

[HGI]

Got more info about the product "No Planaria" since I found someone who sells it.

$5 a bag

Control planaria within 72 hours! It's an all natural product which is safe for plants, fish and shrimps. Dosage is easy and each package (contains packet #1, #2 and #3) treats up to 50 litres (13.5 gallons). Instructions: Do a water change/gravel clean and add packet #1. Wait 24 hours and add packet #2. Wait another 24 hours and add packet #3. To be safe, you can always do a water change 24 hours after adding packet #3 and you're done. Easy and safe.

[lesleyanndunn]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Biomax-Eikoso-No- ... 20b205d454

[HGI]

Yea I saw that on Ebay, but it's not worth it since all you need is that one bag and the other 2 would be garbage, and then again one bag only treats 13.5g.

[pufferpuggirl]

Shame it doesn't treat a bigger tank .... my smallest tank (with planaria problem) is 20-gallons, and the largest is about 58-gallons. Of course, the ones I really want to get the planaria gone from are the three 30-gallon tanks I have.
I am going to look into this. In fact, I just found more planaria in tanks I didn't know I even had them in. It's like they are slowly invading all my tanks (only about 5 tanks out of 18 that don't have the planaria in them yet). Insidious little so and so's!

[RTR]

I have to respectfully disagree with any "quick fix" for planaria (or nematode) control. Excess numbers of either invert indicate an upkeep problem - large population of either indicate a situation of excess organics in the substrate, which is the direct result of insufficient upkeep. It likely indicates excess organics in the water column as well, but not always. Using a quick fix to kill those inverts is going to increase even further the total excess of organics in the substrate and possibly negatively affect water column quality as well. Not in my fish tanks! If I have an upkeep problem, I want to correct it, not magnify it.

FYI, I have had excess populations of each of those inverts in multiple different tanks in the past, and have never needed to do anything beyond thorough substrate cleaning followed by better substrate upkeep afterward, and at times using other foods which are better suited to the fish involved. It is all part of the process of learning how to maintain tanks - no more and certainly no less.

The day I have to use quick fixes to keep up my tanks is the day that I give up the hobby. If I cannot or will not do it right, I will not do it at all. Adding poisons to the tank to fix issues of my own making is not quality tank care in my mind.

I am sorry if I step on anyone's toes, but this is a hot button issue for me. Aquarium upkeep is mostly simple mindless work, and I have no patience with those who want quick fixes without any effort to themselves.

Off soap box, return to your regular programming..

[pufferpuggirl]

I definitely respect what you have to say RTR, you do know your stuff .... but let me also say that I find it very frustrating that the answer to "my" planaria problem is people telling me I'm not keeping my tank right. I am trying to do everything to the best of my ability but I still have this planaria problem and seems like it's spreading. I DO clean my substrate thoroughly (you should see how many come out!) and I have all my tanks on a strict water change routine. Since realising that I had a problem with planaria (or whatever they are), I've cut down drastically on my feeding. Mainly the tanks that have this problem are my piscivore puffer tanks and I don't feed any of them very much food, in fact, I don't even feed them daily, and yet I still have a problem.

Can you, just for a moment, put yourself in my shoes. You are keeping your tanks clean, siphoning the substrate thoroughly with each water change, plus vacuuming the tanks every day to take out any uneaten foods -- and yet you still have planaria. And on top of it, people are telling you that you're not keeping your tanks clean enough when you know you are.
This is the frustration I feel with this problem.

I honestly don't know what else I can do.

[Flutter]

RTR, I have a question for curiousity's sake as we don't have worms. How does this situation change if you have a heavily planted tank and dose EI? Obviously you can't vacuum (very well at least) the substrate of a heavily planted tank and if you're dosing EI then the point is to always have excess organics in the water (perhaps they are a type of organics that don't contribute to the problem? I know we add nitrates every other day among other stuff)... In that case would feeding less be the answer?

[RTR]

PPG - I cannot answer your question, as I have never - in all the hundreds if not thousands of tanks I have operated in the last 50+ years had any, repeat any, tank which did did not respond to a thorough substrate cleaning and improved follow-up upkeep. My only follow-up questions would be: Do you have excessive substrate for the grain/particle size? If so, that is the issue. Or; Are you feeding inappropriate foods that will load the substrate with uneaten food particles? I have had issues with pellets fed to puffers - they blow massive amount out through their gills.

J-P: Planted tanks are easy, even those with deep substrates. All my planted tanks are full-depth substrate vacuumed thoroughly whenever any given clump is divided and re-set. The whole tank is never done at once, only as the plants require. For some Crypts that is highly variable, ranging from every 6-9 months to maybe once per two years. Vals are pretty much done annually. Anubias is also highly variable - nana petite is about yearly, some of the other others about every other year when I want long and large rhizomes. The only plant I do not move at all is an established stand of aquatic Crirum. Those I do remove most pups and do vacuum, but not full-depth, as their roots cover the entire aquarium floor. I do have a couple of planted tanks well over ten years old, and they have no planaria or nematode issues, nor have they ever.

HTH.

[HGI]

Interesting read RtR but I'm going to say that I'm in the same boat as pufferpuggirl, I do a good 50% w/c weekly and vac the heck out of my sand as well as cut down on feeding to the point where my fish are nearly ready to turn on each other.

I've been talking with the store owner who has the product "No Planaria" and this is the lastest email he sent me.

The medication actually kills the planaria so they won't come back. The only way they come back is when you re-introduce it by accident.

I've had it in my tanks as well but after using it, it wiped it all out and I've never seen any since. Basically there's no way to get rid of it unless you tear up your tank, bleach it and start from scratch. You'd also have to clean your filters as they are likely in the media. If you use the medication, you don't have to take anything out. In fact you want to have everything in the water and still running as you want to expose everything including the nets to the medication to kill the planaria.

The planria are scavengers so they eat anything possible even tiny little pieces of food too small for the piranha to see. If you decide on using it, the best thing you can do is a major water change (gravel vac) and try not to feed the fish over the next 2 days. Follow the steps for treatment and by the 3rd treatment you can resume feeding and on the 5-6th day do another major water change/gravel vac/

Maybe in your case you gave your tank a really good clean and there's low numbers of Planaria that are barley visible to the naked eye and they haven't been able to reproduce into large numbers like pufferpuggirl and myself are having.

I know shop owners will say what they can to make the $$ but this guy seems to be well informed so I'm leaning towards giving it a shot.

[RTR]

As I said in an earlier reply, If a thorough full-depth substrate cleaning does not solve the problem, then the issue is too much or too fine substrate , and or inappropriate feeding/maintenance.

There are things which do call for tank breakdown. TB is one for me.

Algae, snails, planaria or nematodes - things which can be part of the normal complement of established tanks are NEVER something which require adding poisons or toxins to an established tank. Those are all things which by excess population reflect on the operator's insufficient or inappropriate setup and/or care.

If you really believe what a LFS operator tells you, you are not an experienced hobbyist and will never have your captive wet pets live a full lifespan. They and their tanks will suffer from misapplied and inappropriate toxic material application. That is an unfortunate situation, but unfortunately it is the case.

How much sand depth do you have in your Piranha tank?

Do you surface vac after feedings?

[pufferpuggirl]

HGI -- Send me a PM, I've got some information that may interest you.

[J-P]

Without a pic are we 100% certain we're talking about planaria here? The are so often confused for other types of worms.

[pufferpuggirl]

No, to be honest, I'm not sure what I have, although I'm guessing it's planaria. I am useless at getting close-up photos, so I'm sure mine would come out just a big blur, but I will try next time I feed and they come out on the glass.

[J-P]

one trick I used when I only had my camera phone, was to hold a magnifying glass in front of the lens and take the shot. It is tricky using 2 hands on 2 pieces of equipment but it can be done.