Hydra

JP100

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Hi I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to get rid of Hydra.
They are in all my tanks and are destroying my daphnia stocks.
Anything would help
Thanks
 
Johnny (SludgeMunkey) found an excellent way to get rid of hydra. He posted this on a blog but I am not sure if you could find it, so I'll post his method here for you and anyone else needing it.

Materials:

-One 55 US gallon drum
-Five or six dirty socks (see proper method for preparing socks below!)
-A six pack of Mountain Dew in cans
-Four pounds of Dry Ice (CO2 in solid form)
- A Shop- Vac or other suitable wet/dry vacuum device
-One dozen Grade A extra large factory farmed eggs
-nine ounces of pug feces (a 50% mix of pug/chihuahua works well too!)
-two pollo y queso freezer burritos
-one USB 2.0 type "D" cable, 36 inches long
- A bottle of Maker's Mark
-one copy of the hardcover version of Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
-soy milk
-a mixture of organ meats like haggis

Procedure:

1. Scrape up the pug feces and place it in the drum with the dirty socks. Add all of the Mountain Dew, burritos, organ meat mixture, and eggs. Mix well with a paint mixer or shovel.
2. Set the drum aside in direct sunlight for 8 hours, stirring occasionally. While this "stew" is steeping in the sun, open the bottle of maker's Mark and drink half of it in one long chug.
3. Duct tape all the openings on the Shop-Vac shut after placing the dry ice in the tank. Attach the hose to the "suck" port and then place the hose end with the crevice cleaning attachment into the "stew" in the drum.
4. Next, tie the USB cable around your head while reading aloud from the Abe Lincoln book. Consume the rest of the whiskey. Pour the soy milk down the back of your pants. Take a nap in the sun.
5. Once you wake up, dance a rain dance around the drum/shop-vac assembly while chanting "Oh Watah Goo Siam". Plug in and turn on the shop vac, taking care to have the outlet port aimed into the hydra infected tank or tanks.
6. Now, jump into the drum and stomp the "stew" much like a wine maker stomps grapes. Finish reading the Abe Lincoln book while doing so. The resulting noxious gases will kill all hydra while you are attempting to recover from drinking all the whiskey by reading and getting a good work out stomping the mush in the drum.


Dirty Sock Prep:
To properly prepare your socks, pick out ones that have no match, preferable those that have had their mate sacrificed to the laundry dryer. Place all of the socks on your feet and wear them for a week. Make sure to go on field herping trips in muddy areas, walk through the dog park blindfolded, and if possible take a tour of the killing floor at a local slaughter house. By not taking the socks off for a week they will achieve the proper levels of bacteria required for the biological reaction to take place in your anti-hydra reactor assembly.
 
I use large water snails, ramshorns and the great pond snail. They eat them.
 
some snails and gouramis eat hydra. Most of the chemical treatment to get rid of them is hard on the salamanders. I usually empty the tank of animals and use chlorine bleach.

In keeping with Johnny's cure I suppose shooting the tank with a shotgun would work too.
 
I had hydra in my shrimp tank. I read on the net that some people had had some success with Panacur medicine (its some kind of anti-parasite drug for animals) so decided to try it.

I got a small amount in a vial from a friendly vet friend and syringed a small amount in. I can't recall exactly my calcs but I think I was target maybe 2-5 ppm. It send my pH crazy and killed a few shrimp before I noticed. However, the hydra are all gone with just the one treatment so I suppose I call it a success. I did a water change and pH since settled to neutral.

I would call this an extremely risky option and, if you go down this path, I'd definitely 100% remove the axies to your quarantine tank first. I would definitely not subject an axy to this treatment. Even then, I'd monitor the chemistry in your main tank before putting them back in as it may well impact your tanks cycle too. I can't even say I'm advocating it but thought I'd mention it for your consideration.
 
Fenbebdazole works well, but the experts are out on its effects on caudates. A search for hydra on here will reveal the extensive experimentation I did a year or so back....dirty socks not included!:smile:

Truth be told, unles you are rearing very small larvae like Triturus complex, hydra are not really an issue.
 
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Get rid of? Probably not. Not feeding items they eat (brine shrimp, Daphnia) helps. I second the recommendation for ramshorn and other large water snails reducing their numbers. But get rid of? Not without chemical warfare.
 
Ok thanks alot.
I have been just emptying the tank and washing out with hot water this seems to work and isn't that hard in a small tank.
 
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